Honolulu’s sharpened focus on ocean safety is coming into view, taking the shape of new lifeguard towers as well as plans for a new facility with offices and storage for Windward Oahu lifeguard operations.

These are welcome developments this summer, when the island’s year-round beachgoing activity levels become especially intense, among tourists and residents alike. A near-drowning at Hanauma Bay was among the most recent incidents; the June 23 shark attack that killed lifeguard Tamayo Perry is one tragic incident among nine in the last 20 years.

Last week longtime Oahu lifeguard Kurt Lager was named acting director of the new Ocean Safety Department. The agency was split off from the Emergency Services Department in May, through Honolulu City Council resolutions signed by Mayor Rick Blangiardi.

Its establishment is not quite complete: In the General Election Nov. 5, voters will decide on a charter amendment creating an Ocean Safety Commission for oversight.

There have been other initiatives to improve beach surveillance and, it is hoped, curb the worst outcomes. By the end of last year, all Oahu lifeguards were working four 10-hour shifts per week, allowing towers to be staffed from sunrise to sunset. This was implemented while Ocean Safety was still under the Emergency Services Department.

Still, the stand-alone department idea was the optimal change to make, although it’s been a few years in coming. A Council resolution seeking to create the agency in a City Charter amendment failed in 2021. In 2023 Blangiardi convened an ocean-safety task force, which ultimately recommended creating the separate department.

The Council introduced Resolution 50, both to create the department and propose the commission charter amendment. Testimony was overwhelmingly favorable. As retired firefighter Chip Hartman noted, the training and work protocols for water safety surveillance are wholly different from requirements of emergency services, so the split makes sense.

The mayor determined that he could more quickly set up the agency through executive action, though. Voters will only be approving the Ocean Safety Commission through the charter amendment.

It was wise to get the ball rolling through executive action. Resources were found to start initial improvements this year and plan for the spending needed in the 2026 budget. A blessing ceremony in May marked the start of work on the office and storage facility, pegged to open in summer 2025.

In addition, the full Council should move on Resolution 187, to transfer $281,000 in general funds and $111,450 in Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve funds allotted for 2024 to the 2025 fiscal year budget, which began July 1.

This money covers the cost of the eight new lifeguard towers to replace the old ones at Kalama Beach Park, Sunset Beach, Maili Beach and at locations in Waimanalo, Waikiki and Ala Moana. The old towers should be repurposed at additional beach spots, if possible.

Lifeguards bear a great deal of responsibility. The count of rescues is highest at beaches such as Sandy and Waikiki and along the Leeward Coast, according to city data.

But most of what they do is aimed at preventing mishaps rather than intervention when something bad has happened already.

According to the most recent available yearly log sheets from 2022, their work involved 2.2 million public contacts — everything from a friendly chat or taking a photo for visitors — and 1.6 preventive actions — warning a beachgoer against doing something unsafe.

Prevention is the most imperative mission, and improving the facilities for ocean safety should make that a more achievable goal.