Did Port Stephens' jet-ski ban just push noise next door?

Transport for NSW's evaluation of Port Stephens' powered vessel exclusion zones has backed what many locals have said: the restrictions didn't get rid of the jet-ski problem, they simply pushed it to nearby beaches.

The evaluation paired each trial site with a nearby "control" beach to isolate the trial's effect.

Dutchman's Beach was paired with Corlette, Fly Point with Little Beach, and Shoal Bay West with Shoal Bay East.

At the trial beaches, the average number of personal watercraft within 30 metres of shore fell 56 per cent.

At the paired control beaches nearby, the same figure rose 54.6 per cent.

Further out, within 90 metres, personal watercraft numbers fell 53.4 per cent at trial beaches but rose 34.9 per cent at the control beaches.

Safety incidents rose 400 per cent at trial beaches during the trial, but 700 per cent at the control beaches over the same period.

The report cautions those figures reflect lower-level flags, such as speeding near shore rather than confirmed incidents.

Across the entire trial, only one minor collision was recorded in 187 hours of observation, a sample the evaluators say is too small and localised to draw firm conclusions from.

The report stopped short of concluding the trial had driven jet-skis into new territory at scale, noting "some anecdotal evidence" of displacement but "no systematic data" confirming it.

It instead points to "perimeter clustering", vessels positioning just beyond zone edges rather than moving elsewhere.

An unusually cold snap over the new year period also suppressed watercraft activity generally, with staff estimating activity down 20 to 60 per cent on previous summers regardless of location.

Local Leesa Whittner said the pattern was predictable.

"I find exclusion zones just push the watercraft users elsewhere and create a new problem," she said.

A "parking zone" at each beach might work better, she suggested.

For residents further along the waterway, the data matched their experience.

Kassia Klinger, who lives west of the exclusion zones, said the disruption followed the jet-skis, rather than disappearing.

"Sadly the problem has migrated west towards Salamander Bay," she said.

"Am fed up with tourists impacting our everyday life over summer, now this noise ... many locals are at their wit's end."

Another resident said jet-skis had moved to Lemon Tree Passage last summer, as did free-camping at the boat ramp.

"It is moving the problem further up into the bay," she said.

Transport for NSW received just 10 complaints about personal watercraft behaviour across Port Stephens during the trial, suggesting the disruption reported informally by residents didn't translate into formal complaints.

Not everyone agrees the zones are the problem.

Personal watercraft rider George Keramea said water authorities had told him incidents between craft and swimmers were rare, and argued the real issue was a minority of unsafe users across all vessel types, not PWCs alone.

He backed cancelling licences and registrations for offenders "just like on a road", and said the environmental focus on jet-skis was lopsided.

He said his boat's 70-horsepower engine was louder than his jet-ski, its propeller would do more seabed damage than a jet-ski's impeller, and marina cruisers created far more wake and disruption.

Local power vessel user Beverley Price welcomed the zones' return.

"We know where we can go during this month and swimmers know where to go," she said.

"A win-win solution."

The evaluation's authors made stakeholder engagement, not enforcement location, their central recommendation for future zones, noting industry groups and local businesses were "strongly dissatisfied" with the trial, and recommended personal watercraft users and associated businesses be prioritised in future consultation.

Whether that will extend to residents in areas now reporting increased jet-ski activity, rather than just those inside the three exclusion zones, remains an open question as the zones prepare to return this Christmas.