Record heat crowds Swiss lakes with risky traffic

Record heat is drawing unusually large numbers of people with competing interests onto Swiss lakes, creating dangerous encounters between paddleboarders, motorboats and swimmers, SRF reports.

“Lake Zurich is like an amusement park in midsummer,” says Adrian Gerny, a professional fisherman who has worked on the lake for 18 years. “It is all fun and games with rental boats and pedal boats.” As the lake becomes more crowded, risky situations are becoming more frequent.

On one sunny afternoon, a motorboat approached Gerny’s boat at high speed as he was setting his fishing nets. He tried unsuccessfully to alert the driver with a hand signal. The motorboat then crossed the sinking net without slowing down.

Motorboat propellers can cause serious damage to fishing nets. Gerny says this costs him between 15,000 and 20,000 Swiss francs a year. Clear rules require other vessels to keep 200 metres behind a fishing boat and 50 metres to its side and front.

Gerny suspects that many people who rent small motorboats of up to eight horsepower do not know the rules because they are not required to take a boating test. He also says people struggle to judge distances on the water. Some swimmers have already entered the water just 10 metres behind his boat, where his net was sinking. Anyone who becomes entangled could be pulled underwater.

Growing number of near misses

Several shipping companies and the Zurich city water police say recreational activity has increased on practically all of Switzerland’s larger lakes. They are seeing more stand-up paddleboards, pump foils, kayaks and swimmers.

Conflicts are especially common where different users share the same water, including around harbours and landing stages and in the lanes used by scheduled passenger vessels.

The situation is considered particularly critical when people use water sports equipment without training or instruction. BLS Schifffahrt AG, a shipping company on Lake Thun, says conditions have worsened despite earlier awareness campaigns by the Federal Office of Transport. Rental businesses instruct their customers, but more people are ordering sports equipment online and going onto the lake without knowing the rules.

Recent near misses show the potential consequences. At Lake Thun, swimmers and divers were unknowingly within about one metre of turning ship propellers. Silvan Paganini, head of nautical operations at BLS Schifffahrt AG, quotes a veteran captain as saying: “If this continues, it is only a matter of time before someone gets caught in a propeller.”

CGN, a shipping company on Lake Geneva, and Schifffahrt Vierwaldstättersee, a shipping company on Lake Lucerne, also say many recreational users underestimate the physical characteristics of large vessels. A scheduled passenger vessel needs about 150 metres to stop. To prevent accidents, captains must repeatedly make emergency stops, slow down or change course, which can affect timetables.

Despite daily interventions, formal reports remain rare. The Zurich cantonal police water unit and the shipping companies focus mainly on visibility, education and direct conversations. They say safe coexistence depends on every user taking responsibility, knowing the boating rules and operating defensively.

Gerny also reports a new phenomenon on warm summer nights and nights with a full moon: paddleboarders going onto the lake at 2 a.m.