Zebra Mussels and waterballast!

[Richard O'Brien]

Well! They're heeere! Yes, they've made it to Colorado, and The park service will conduct "inspections" of all vessels. One of our club members,who always likes to push my buttons said there was some discussion of outlawing waterballasted boats because they can't be inspected? I'm trying to find ways to reassure the inspectors that my boat is mussel free. The fact that ,my boat has been drying for 4 months in a freezing climate might help, but I'm wondering about other options during the summer? how about throwing a few ounces of chlorine bleach in with 5 gallons of water as you tow it down the road? I'd think that sloshing action would get the little buggers? Any expertise from you guys?

[Catigale]

Richard -

Step one - keep a really good log of all travels so you can document where you have been.

If you can get your boat dry you will prevent the spread of the larvae, which die in 3-4 days once dried out.

Inspect the boat for mussels that have attached - these live a lot longer than the larva

[NiceAft]

THIS ENTIRE RESPONCE IS BASED ON THE PREMIS THAT AT SOMETIME, BALLASTED BOATS WILL NEED TO PROVE THEY ARE FREE OF ANY NUMBER OF TRANSFERABLE PESTS SUCH AS ZEBRA MUSSELS, SNAKEHEAD FISH, OR SOME FUTURE PEST.

Before anyone starts sending nasty responses when they read this, remember, I'm on your side. A brother Mac owner. Smokum peace pipe and be friends. I'm from Philadelphia, city of brotherly love (please don' pay any mind to our homicide rate)


Catigale said:

Step one - keep a really good log of all travels so you can document where you have been.

If you can get your boat dry you will prevent the spread of the larvae, which die in 3-4 days once dried out.

Inspect the boat for mussels that have attached - these live a lot longer than the larva

Nice things to do, but I don't think any of it is proof for any agency that could possibly be checking ballasted boats sometime in the future.

I hate to say it, but there simply may not be any way to prove a ballast to being pest free. There may be a period of quarantine which all vessels may have to go through before being allowed on certain lakes.

Ray

[captronr]

KS just introduced a similar bill. I made the mistake of trying to read the draft--all TWELVE pages of it. Talk about psycho-babble!

It didn't mention water ballasted boats that I could see.

It looked like it was put together by a committee--and I doubt if any sailors were consulted.

The paper said you had to drain bilges, wet wells, etc and either wash with hot soapy water at a car wash OR keep it out of the water for 5 days. Plus make sure nothing was attached and/or growing to the outside.

Max fine is $6K and/or potential of having your state registration pulled for one year. Lesser fines for things like refusing inspection, etc.

Bill also calls for 10K hours of inspections (I figure 10 guys, 6 months) annually at the state lakes/rivers.

Might be an issue to trailer, if you have to figure out how to power wash the inside of the ballast tank....... Any ideas?

ron

[Frank C]

No need to overwork this problem, MacSailors. It's easy to disinfect a ballast tank. See Capt Kimo's thread regarding Lake Mead regs. Most lakes will probably adopt something similar, and there's noting too complicated or onerous.

There's very little about Macs or their usage that hasn't been discussed here.
Search is Our Friend . . . keyword "zebra"

[Richard O'Brien]

Thanks Frank

That was exactly the information needed, and it includes a formula, Something I couldn't find elswhere?

[bastonjock]

one of the large RO-RO ferries operating in the North of england,had to be pulled this week ,it was all down to baby mussels clogging up the intakes,they recon that the boat is out for 3 weeks.

i dont know if we have them here in the UK (zebra) but most of the things that originate in the States and end up here,turn into pests,those little red signal crayfish have almost wiped out the native population,same goes for the grey squirrel too

[mike uk]

i dont know if we have them here in the UK (zebra) but most of the things that originate in the States and end up here,turn into pests,those little red signal crayfish have almost wiped out the native population,same goes for the grey squirrel too

...and Wal-Mart!

[Catigale]

I think Zebras came over from asia to the Great Lakes in freighter ballast IIRC..

[baldbaby2000]

They've been in the Caspian sea for a long time, moved to Europe in the 1800's then to the US in the 1980s. They're a nuisance but not all bad. They do filter the water and make it cleaner and help some fish populations. Hard as we try to stop them, we might just have to learn to live with them.

I wonder what the effects are of having to spray off our boats with high temperature, high pressure spray on the boat and the bottom paint (if it comes to that)?

[Moe]

Indeed! From what I can tell, zebra mussels may've been the best thing that could've happened for recreation on Lake Erie.

[Richard O'Brien]

I wonder if they are a food source to anything else? I watched the bears in AK dining on shellfish. I wonder if the coyote, fox. and especially racoon will discover them here?

[kmclemore]

Indeed! From what I can tell, zebra mussels may've been the best thing that could've happened for recreation on Lake Erie.

Ha.. yeah, that reminds me of the way the lake used to be - everyone made fun of how polluted Erie was. Remember the Saturday Night Live spoof that Bill Murray did for "Swill Mineral Water"? ("The water that's dredged from Lake Erie.")

Click the pic below for the original video... pretty funny.

[Moe]

I'd forgotten about that one, LOL!

[Catigale]

They actually do such a good job as filters that if you dispose of dead ones, they are considered hazardous waste (from all the chemicals that get stuck in them.)

I drove by the Mud Lock at the top of Lake Cayuga in upstate NY one winter, and the lock cylinder was drained for maintenance...the zebra mussels were knee deep in the bottom....