Boat inspections ramp up as lakes finally thaw

Every summer, the lakes of Montana are crowded with watercraft from all over the United States and Canada, and with each of those watercraft comes a potential for dangerous contaminants.

The most dangerous of those alien contaminants are invasive species of mussels that can lodge themselves into the smallest crevices of boats, anchors, and submerged equipment and be moved from one body of water to another without being noticed but even one mussel can explode into a population large enough to destroy a lake's ecosystem.

"It's borderline impossible to get them out of the lake without completely nuking everything," said Kolin Teasdale, a roadside inspector for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks at the Clearwater Junction site.

Teasdale is part of an inspection team that is trained to search watercraft and identify invasive species which may be attached to them. At this point in the early season he says they will inspect around 50 boats per day, but in the middle of the summer, they often see more than 200.

"We can get upwards of 600 boats on the Fourth of July," Teasdale said.

Most inspections take less than five minutes. One or two inspectors go over the boat and check for mussels, plant life or standing water while another inspector asks the boater where they are coming from and where they are going.

Teasdale said they find plant matter pretty often and they simply remove it and let it dry out on the roadside, but if they find mussels then they have to quarantine the craft and call in a warden.

Although some summer travelers don't like the delays, most see the benefits and are more than happy to comply with an inspection to prevent the spread of invasive mussels.

Montana's inspection program has so far been successful at maintaining the state's water. But it hasn't been without close calls.

A number of mussel-fouled vessels have been found by the road-side inspectors this year. All were traveling from out-of-state.

According to Teasdale, a single female mussel can produce up to a million eggs and the population grows exponentially from there.

"Depending on the size of the lake, it can completely take over within a couple of months," said Sean Malec, another inspector at the Clearwater Junction site.

According to Malec it only takes a few weeks for a mussel population to grow big enough to start causing problems in a body of water.

The best way to stop the spread of invasive species is to stop at all road-side sites for inspection. It is also advised that you clean, drain and dry all watercraft between uses, and especially if traveling from one body of water to another.