While "critical" police activated incidents were slightly down over the past year, Coastguard Hawke's Bay crews had responded to more calls for assistance and helped 62 people out of the water - compared with 49 the previous year.
Coastguard Hawke's Bay president Dick Hilton called the figures "a mixed bag", but
said demand for coastguard assistance in the Bay echoed the national figures - which showed an increase in callouts.
"Our radio operators recorded 2730 calls during the year [July 2009-June 2010] which is an increase of nearly 30 per cent over the previous year's calls."
Mr Hilton said it was a clear illustration that the workload for the service was steadily growing.
He said volunteer crews, radio operators and other staff put in 8019 hours last year.
"It was a great effort."
Nationally, the number of coastguard rescue missions increased from 3410 to 3722, with the number of people rescued up from 5493 in the 2008-09 period to 6560 last year.
Across the Eastern Region, Hawke's Bay with 26 had the seventh highest number of calls for urgent assistance, just ahead of Waihi Beach.
Top of the list was Tauranga with 147 calls, followed by Whakatane and Whitianga with 80 each.
"New Zealand's waterways are more popular than ever," Coastguard boss Bruce Reid said. "While these high numbers don't necessarily indicate worsening safety trends it does show the risks are very real, and that boaties need to keep safety top of their minds when heading out."
