View topic - Aquatic Invasive Species

Just collected a summers worth of mail today...in there was the summer edition of Western Canada Game Warden magazine...there is coincidentally an article all about another current thread about the "checks" going on...
Here are a few tidbits from the article:
-the mandatory inspections are in MB, SK,AB, BC
-2016 saw 19,000 inspections in AB alone with 17 "mussel-fouled" boats from eastern provinces and states
-2015 saw 21,500 inspections with 12 "mussel-fouled boats" most from ON
-AB has 3 canine units dedicated to detect mussels on watercraft
-in 2017 AB and BC are operating "24/7 night stations at key high traffic locations"
-in 2016 MB,SK,AB,BC,and the Yukon signed an Invasive Species Agreement
-in 2016, federal Aquatic Invasive Species Regulations were passed under the federal Fisheries Act
Long story short travellers with watercraft heading to the west will have to get used to the inspections.

as a side note...anyone in banff this summer that went by Johnson Lake would have noticed the whirling disease notices..."the federal gov't has now declared the entire Bow River Watershed to be an infected area...." flyfishers now need to properly clean waders too.

A report out of BC shows data that canoes and kayaks are by far the most commonly inspected "watercraft" but nothing has ever been detected on any. Its all motor boats.

Good to know about the Bow. Thanks

My local homeriver, a blue ribbon trout stream, was invaded by “rock snot” a few years back. Truly disgusting stuff, like the Jolly Green Giant had blown his nose in the river. That river (and rivershed) sees zero motorboat traffic and it was almost certainly carried in on fly fisherman’s waders.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didymosphenia_geminata

I have since become more attentive to washing my boats, boots and gear.

Recommended read on invasive species – The Death and Life of the Great Lakes (Dan Egan 2017).

That book was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and chronicles the spread of invasive species in the Great Lakes (and elsewhere), starting with canal building in the late 1800’s and the introduction of sea lampreys, alewives, zebra and quagga mussels, toxic algae and more.

Egan’s writing style is reminiscent of John McPhee, introducing history, science, characters and unforeseen consequences in a fascinating and readably way.

https://www.amazon.com/Death-Life-Great ... 0393246434