Efforts to prevent infestation of quagga mussels — an invasive species harmful to life in our local lakes — has made it cumbersome for our local lake boaters to move their boats between lakes. Doing so requires repeated time-consuming inspections and “banding,” which is a way for lake operators to show that they have inspected a boat and it hasn’t been launched elsewhere between uses.
Lake Cachuma isn’t bad, but Lake Casitas is horrible — requiring a lengthy quarantine period that makes it difficult for boaters such as tournament anglers and others who like to move freely between lakes to fish and recreate. Lakes in one part of Southern California have come up with a way to work together to keep up the guard against quagga mussels and yet facilitate the needs and desires of their boating customers.
Below is a news release that I hope all of our local lake operators will take to heart and emulate here:
Hemet — Boat inspections of quagga mussels and other invasive species conducted at any one of these lakes — Perris, Silverwood, Diamond Valley or Hemet — will be honored at all of the lakes, starting April 1.
In a joint statement, California State Parks and Quagga Inspection Services LLC (QIS) announced a new feature, called “reciprocal banding,” that will allow boaters to move between the four lakes without needing to be reinspected.
“This has long been a desire of the boating public,” Marshall Pike of QIS said.
Boats that have cleared inspection at any of the four lakes will be able to enter through a priority “banded boat” lane, thereby expediting their launch. Inspectors in the banded boat lane will confirm the boat’s launch history using QID, a handheld vessel-tracking mobile application that is used during inspections at all four lakes.
“Tournament anglers and others who move between these lakes for the best fishing have wanted something like this,” Pike said. “With this agreement, any wet areas found in a vessel that has been inspected and banded will be allowed to pass when the band is checked against its online QID record.”
This is the first cross-jurisdictional memorandum of understanding for boat inspections. Officials predict it has the potential to become a model of cooperation between water recreation agencies in the task of protecting Southern California water resources from quagga mussel infestation.
QIS is a Red Bluff company that provides aquatic invasive species inspection services including training, inspections, decontamination and education services to public agencies, including water districts and park and recreation agencies. QIS developed QID a mobile application that provides a digital record of a boat’s invasive species inspections.
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— Capt. David Bacon operates WaveWalker Charters and is president of SOFTIN Inc., a nonprofit organization providing seafaring opportunities for those in need. Visit softininc.blogspot.com to learn more about the organization and how you can help. Click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.
