As the nation's recreational boating safety coordinator, the Coast Guard’s aim is to minimize loss of life, personal injury, property damage, and environmental harm across the United States. Joining its public education programs, regulation of boat design and construction, approval of boating safety equipment, and vessel safety checks is the Coast Guard Mobile App. Now many of the essential services and information that are most commonly requested by boaters are that much easier to access.

The app is loaded with features like state boating information, safety equipment checklist, free boating safety check requests, navigation rules, float plans, and calling features if you need to report pollution or suspicious activity. If you enable location services, you can also receive the latest weather reports from the closest National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather buoys, and additionally report the location of a hazard on the water. And the pièce de résistance is the Emergency Assistance button—with your locations services enabled, you can call the closest Coast Guard command center.

The Boating Safety Mobile app isn’t intended to replace your marine VHF radio, but rather provides the convenience of extra boating safety resources for mobile device users.

Because the app is self-contained, your personal information is stored on the phone and isn’t sent to the Coast Guard unless you choose to. For more info, check out the video below.