Only days after opening watercraft inspection stations, the Flathead Basin Commission has reported finding the first round of boats fouled with aquatic invasive species (AIS).
Both of the boats came from Lake Havasu in Arizona and had been decontaminated by the Arizona Game and Fish Department. Yet, the mussels remained.
The 20-foot pontoon boat and 15-foot aluminum fishing boat were both in Lake Havasu for two to three months, and were pulled out of that water body on March 28. They were intercepted at the U.S. Highway 93 AIS Watercraft Inspection Station on April 1.
“Decontamination is not always 100 percent. It is critical for boats to be held after decontamination to ensure that they are actually mussel-free,” Erik Hanson, AIS Consultant for the Flathead AIS Work Group. said.
Caryn Miske, executive director of the Flathead Basin Commission, said there was a push to get the station open early this year, and it was finally ready by March 30. Since then, crews have performed 105 inspections, including four high-risk boat inspections.
“We often hear from boaters that the problem is the out-of-state boat owners,” said Ky Zimmerman, the watercraft inspector who detected the fouled boats along with fellow inspector Joshua Cruz. “Yet in this case, both boat owners were Montana residents, showing that we all must be vigilant.”
The Flathead Basin Commission said both boat owners “were extremely cooperative” and hadn’t realized the Arizona decontamination process hadn’t fully worked.
The FBC was established by the Montana Legislature in 1983 to protect the water quality of the Flathead River drainage system. For more information, contact the FBC at 406-240-3453.