We’ve just released our annual report highlighting our 2013 Boat Inspection Program results.
In 2013, we conducted a total of 3,192 watercraft inspections and 4 decontaminations at Lake Whatcom and Lake Samish. While most of the boats we surveyed were from Whatcom County, boats had visited 128 different waterbodies in 11 different states/provinces prior to launching in Lake Whatcom or Lake Samish.
The majority of boats that were stopped at the Aquatic Invasive Species Check Station in 2013 were clean; however, we did find some boats with vegetation or standing water on board that required some additional attention. Our inspectors used these situations as an opportunity to educate boaters about the importance of cleaning, draining, and drying their boats between every use.
No watercraft with invasive mussels were intercepted at the Aquatic Invasive Species Check Stations in 2013. However, there were three boats that were last used in lakes with established zebra or quagga mussel populations. Luckily they had been out of the water for a long time!
More detailed results from the 2013 boating season can be found in the Lake Whatcom Aquatic Invasive Species Program 2013 Annual Report (pdf).
