Dr James Croft discussed the findings from 3700 New Zealand male drowning fatalities recorded by Water Safety New Zealand during the past 30 years.
He was one of the speakers and more than 300 delegates to attend the inaugural International Water Safety and Aquatic Education Conference in Queenstown last Thursday to Saturday.
Dr Croft told delegates the Water Safety NZ database contained information on the activity, alcohol involvement, location, age, boat type, use of life jacket and ethnicity for each drowning. Information was collected to profile groups and improve the communication of water safety messages.
Why men were more likely to drown than women was attributed to several factors by Dr Croft.
Men were more exposed to water, more likely to be involved in submersive activities,
more likely to go beyond their limits and be alone while doing so.
Men were more likely to swim in lakes, swim at night and swim in unpatrolled areas off a beach.
Men considered dangerous situations, such as their canoe overturning in a lake, as not much of a risk.
The most common ethnicity to drown were New Zealand men of European descent, followed by Maori, Asian and Pacific Islanders. The same proportion were alcohol-related regardless of which ethnicity they were.
Young men aged 15-24 were most involved in water sports and recreation and were engaged in those activities before they drowned.
''Accidental immersion'', or falling into water, was their next most common cause of drowning and 61% of those accidental immersions involved alcohol.
Men aged 30-39 favoured underwater activities, such as free diving, scuba diving and snorkelling, but the misuse of alcohol was not a major cause of their drownings.
However, men aged 55-59 were inclined to go boating in rowing boats and dinghies and consume alcohol on board.
Alcohol is over-represented in fresh water drownings.
It is a legal requirement to ''carry a correctly sized, serviceable life jacket for each person on board a pleasure boat'' and it is the ''skipper's legal responsibility to ensure that life jackets are worn in situations of heightened risk'' in New Zealand.
Despite this, only 50% of life jackets were used on power boats, delegates heard.
Dr Croft said there were no cases of death by drowning when alcohol was consumed and life jackets worn.
