BassBlaster

Immunizing Your Boat: It’s Coming?

If you didn’t catch the buzz from a post by Lindner’s Angling Edge recently, Ron Lindner was fishing with fish biologist Dick Sternberg and…well, I’ll let Ron pick it up from here:

In between hooking fish, Dick was on and off the cell phone all afternoon. I heard one side of the ongoing discussions…and they were all about the problems presented by invasive species, primarily quagga and zebra mussels.

Listening to Dick’s conversations, two words repeatedly caught my ear: “BOAT BATHS,” as in giving your boat a bath – which lazy fishermen like myself usually let the rain do at its own discretion.

While discussing this situation as the day went on, Dick confirmed the worst-case scenario that my imagination had conjured up. He said, “Some states, and perhaps even federal authorities, will probably require boats to be immunized before they can be placed in one lake after being taken out of another.”

As a boater/fisherman who jumps from lake to lake, state to state, and even country to country numerous times each year, I know I’m going to have a problem. How we anglers and boaters eventually handle that problem remains to be seen.

I’ll end here with one thought that came to mind as soon as I heard the words “boat bath.” Imagine the entire field in a 150-boat tournament going through a stringent washing process each day before they can proceed to a boat launch and take-off area.  The complexities and challenges presented by invasive species are food for thought, and it would be foolish of us to ignore them.

Really?

Ron’s right about it being foolish to ignore these things, but I have to wonder whether boat baths will do anything. First of all, it would be a HUGE logistical nightmare to try to do that at every boat ramp everywhere. Second, even if the feds mandated it, who would enforce it?

And third, I once read – and agree with – the statement that “biological pollution is the most insidious form of pollution.” Meaning you can’t get rid of a biological agent once it’s introduced. So short of sterilizing every book and cranny of every boat, rod, reel, lure, etc. – tow vehicles too – it wouldn’t even have a shot at actually working…IMO.

5 Comments

5 Comments

  1. Buzz

    January 25, 2011 at 8:05 am

    The problem with folks like Sternberg is that by taking an extreme position they detract from the real conversation that needs to be held with boaters and anglers. Sternberg ideas serve to provoke and by doing so it risks widening the gap between folks (like me) who want to do something about the spread of AIS and those who think it’s spread in inevitable.

    I can’t believe that Ron Linder is confused about this issue. The answer is to drain your livewells, pull your plug, inspect your rig and don’t transport water in bait buckets from lake to lake. What is so confusing about this? But I suppose giving credence and license to folks like Sternberg is better fodder for the press.

  2. Shaggybass

    January 25, 2011 at 7:29 pm

    • admin (mostly Jay)

      January 25, 2011 at 9:42 pm

      Holy crap that is too funny. “Hello 911? I see a boat with red sticker on it on my lake. That’s right, a red sticker. Hello?”

  3. Ronald J. Lindner

    January 26, 2011 at 2:48 pm

    Buzz…Neither Dick Sternberg or I are for solutions such as “boat baths”….however, we are wired into what is being talked about in some environmental protection circles. Dick, DID NOT talk about immunization. That came up from other sources. Today in California there are lakes where you must go through real hassles before you can put your boat in one water, after taking it out from other. This is real and it is happening today. We brought the subject up because if we anglers in general and tournament anglers in particular don’t start planning to deal with this problem, we know that there are others who are waiting in the wings who would be just happy to “solve” the problems their way. What we are saying is:
    we’d better acknowledge the problem NOW…and don’t wait for other folks to force us with rules and regulations (read boat baths) that none of us want. Ron Lindner

  4. Buzz

    January 27, 2011 at 8:21 am

    Ron, “Buzz” here aka Vernon A. Wagner. As far as I can tell your more savvy then most anglers on the need for us to take the lead on slowing the spread of AIS. Below is an article from MN Outdoor News, which came out last week.Your friend Dick Sternberg was quoted.

    By Tim Spielman
    Associate Editor
    St. Paul — Could this be the year the DNR, legislators, and lake groups coalesce in a way that takes aquatic invasive species rules and awareness to a new level? The path is being cut.
    Not only has the DNR formulated a wish list to prevent the spread of aquatic invasives in the state, but lake interests, too, are outlining rules they’d like implemented – and they’re recruiting legislators who might bring them to light in St. Paul.
    Last week, nearly 250 people – including eight state representatives and senators – gathered in Detroit Lakes for the “Tri-County Aquatic Invasive Species Legislative Summit,” according to Dan Kittilson, president of the Hubbard County Coalition of Lake Associations.
    “Basically, it was… to make legislators aware of the threat of invasive species and to seek their support and commitment,” Kittilson said this week. Otter Tail and Becker county officials also hosted the event.
    But the summit wasn’t intended just to create awareness, Kittilson said; it was to prompt action on invasives issues.
    “Hubbard County cannot afford to sit idly by and watch invasives coming into our lakes,” he said in press release announcing the summit. “We have to act now, in partnership with Becker and Otter Tail counties, to harness all available state, regional, and local resources in this fight before it’s too late and our lakes are irreparably harmed.”
    Kittilson, who lives on the Mantrap Chain of Lakes near Park Rapids, said the Hubbard County COLA currently works with area resorts, as well as 29 lake associations (representing 40 lakes and 2,150 members) in the county, to share AIS information.
    While Kittilson favors – once funding is secured – inspections to prevent the spread of invasives (zebra mussels are an example), along with containment of the invasives on “super-spreaders” like Mille Lacs, where zebes already exist, other groups would go further in attempting to curb AIS spread.
    The Green Lake Property Owners Association in Kandiyohi County has on its website a list of recommendations.
    Among them, the group advocates:
    • The state acquiring decontamination equipment by way of a fee system on watercraft that enter infested waters, or through a state contract with private operators. A biennial $50 fee, they say, could generate as much as $45 million;
    • A seal/tag system for boats leaving infested waters of the state, to document inspections and decontaminations;
    • Contaminated water bodies should be prioritized so that resources are allocated on the basis of risk posed by “super-spreader” lakes;
    • Greater regulation of fishing contests. A moratorium on fishing contests on those lakes with names beginning with letters A through J would be imposed in the year 2011 and all odd-numbered years thereafter. Those lakes with names beginning with letters K through Z would be subject to a moratorium on fishing contests in 2012 and all even-numbered years thereafter;
    • Severe penalties, including confiscation of boats and trailers, when appropriate, for moving a watercraft from access areas in infested waters without certified decontamination.
    The Green Lake group estimates the annual cost of its proposed program would be between $5 million and $10 million.
    The DNR’s list of actions to prevent the spread of invasives includes some similarities – putting more teeth in penalties, for example. The department believes $50 and $100 fines are too low, and don’t act as deterrents.
    The department also would like to see improvement in the state’s inspector program, something former DNR fisheries biologist and current fisheries activist Dick Sternberg also favors.

    Sternberg, though, cautions groups to be cautious in what they demand from stepped-up AIS species programs. “It’s going to take a lot of thought and it’s going to be expensive,” he said. “It’s going to be difficult.”
    Turn too many people off with new rules, he said, and a lack of support might be the downfall of proposed legislation. “You only get one shot at this,” he said.
    Sternberg said he’d like to see decontamination facilities available for boaters at places like Mille Lacs and Minnetonka. He believes Legacy Amendment funding should be made available for decontamination or other efforts aimed at curbing invasives.

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