Otago-Southland lifeguards worked more than 10,000 hours and carried out 28 rescues over the patrol season.
Surf Life Saving New Zealand Otago-Southland club development officer Steph Laughton said the season had been good and the weather had played a key part.
"We were really lucky with the December-January period, where it was really good weather, so there were lots of people on the beaches, but everyone was really safe," she said.
Lifeguards worked 10,208 voluntary hours, carried out 28 rescues, 16 searches and 42 first-aid assistances, and took 3081 "preventive actions", which ranged from picking up rubbish to shifting the flags.
Patrols finished in the region on March 18 and Miss Laughton asked people to be careful at beaches over the Easter weekend.
Nationally, so far this season, 979 people have been rescued by surf lifeguards, who have spent 197,000 hours patrolling the country's beaches.
Surf Life Saving New Zealand programmes and services general manager Brett Sullivan said rescues were well down on previous years which he put down to three key areas.
"The number of beachgoers has dropped significantly in various parts of the country, particularly in Christchurch. The Rena disaster has obviously affected the Tauranga coastline right down to Whakatane and the inconsistent weather patterns we've experienced this summer means we've basically seen less people enjoying our coastline," he said.
However, the statistics also showed "consistencies in drowning incidents where people are wearing inappropriate clothing and are unaware of hazardous surf conditions and rips".
"We're constantly working towards lowering New Zealand's high drowning rate and ask people to take responsibility for their own safety around water."
