Fish, Wildlife, Parks check incoming boats for aquatic invasive species
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While most were out celebrating their independence during the 4th of July weekend, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks took advantage of the increased boating traffic in the Mission Valley to educate boaters and protect fragile waters. Checkpoints were placed south of Ronan on Hwy. 93, along with boating access sites around the area in attempt to keep out invasive zebra and quagga mussels, which are very harmful to ecosystems. These exotic mussels reproduce rapidly, clogging filters, water intake pipes and pumps and overtaking boat propellers. Though Montana’s waters remain free of zebra and quagga mussels, the aquatic invasive species are still a big threat.
In fact, there was a close call this March, when a quagga mussel was discovered on a sailboat at Dayton Yacht Harbor. The mussel traveled more than 1,000 miles from Lake Mead, where the species first appeared in 2007.
“We check boats, trailers, kayaks… anything that goes in the water gets looked over,” Aquatic Nuisance Species Coordinator John Wachsmuth said. “(Aquatic nuisances) can cause serious economic damage.”
According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) zebra and quagga mussels have caused more than $5 billion in damage in the Great Lakes Basin alone. The creatures first arrived in the U.S. in the late 1980s, when one commercial cargo ship traveling from the Black Sea to the Great Lakes released larval zebra mussels.
According to Wachsmith, these aquatic species are impossible to predict, as they are as tiny as a fingernail, with some species living multiple days out of the water, and up to 30 days underwater.
“It’s still early and most haven’t used their boats so far this season, so they are checked a little quicker,” Wachsmith said. “Boats that have been used are checked for fragments of plants and mussels.”
“We don’t want people to think of (checkpoints) as a bad thing, it’s all about educating people on how to clean their boating equipment, and to be an outreach to spread the word to get people to know prevention techniques,” he added.
“We want people to clean properly,” Wachsmith said. “We don’t want ‘em in Montana.”
For more information on aquatic nuisances, visit www.100thmeridian.org.
