CAL DFG WILL INSPECT WATERCRAFT FOR QUAGGA/ZEBRA MUSSELS

[troutnut]

CAL DFG WILL INSPECT WATERCRAFT FOR QUAGGA/ZEBRA MUSSELS


Vehicles trailering watercraft north on Interstate 5 near Redding, California May 22-23 will be stopped for mandatory Quagga and Zebra mussel inspections from 2-8 p.m. The Department of Fish and Game (DFG) will inspect all watercraft at the California Highway Patrol Cottonwood Inspection Facility (truck scales) in Tehama County to help prevent the spread of the invasive mollusks.

"Quagga and Zebra mussels have the potential to devastate our waterways," said Capt. Sherry Howell in DFG's Law Enforcement Division. "Because boats are the primary transporters of these mussels, we intend to defer every vehicle with watercraft through the scales for inspection. Our goal is to process watercraft as quickly as possible, but as thoroughly as possible."

Upon entrance to the scales, DFG Game Wardens will ask vessel owners a series of questions about their watercraft. Vessels found to be clean will be released and allowed back onto the Interstate; boaters with suspect vessels will be inspected onsite by trained biologists and specially trained detection dogs. "Dirty" vessels - those that have not been cleaned, drained and dried - will also be inspected and could be quarantined.

California law makes it illegal to possess or transport Quagga or Zebra mussels and gives DFG authority to stop, detain, search and quarantine boats suspected or determined to be contaminated with mussels.

Boats are the primary transporters of Quagga and Zebra mussels. Zebra mussels inhabit water depths from four to 180 feet, while Quagga can reach depths more than 400 feet. Both mollusks can attach to and damage boat trailers, cooling systems, boat hulls and steering equipment. Mussels attached to watercraft or trailers can be transported and spread to other water bodies. Water in boat engines, bilges, live wells and buckets can carry mussel larvae (called veligers) to other water bodies as well.

To help prevent the spread of the mussels, boaters should inspect all exposed surfaces, wash boat hulls thoroughly, remove all plants from boat and trailer, drain all water, including lower outboard units, clean and dry livewells and bait buckets and dispose baitfish in the trash.

Most importantly, watercraft should be dried for at least five days between launches in different fresh bodies of water, even longer in cool, moist weather. These steps are designed to thwart spread of the invasive mussels, safeguard boats and preserve high quality fisheries.

Quagga mussels were first detected in the Colorado River system in January 2007 and were later found in San Diego and Riverside counties by state and local water agencies. Zebra mussels were discovered in San Justo Reservoir in San Benito County in January 2008.

A multi-agency taskforce that includes DFG, the Department of Water Resources, the Department of Boating and Waterways, and California State Parks is currently working to determine the extent of the Quagga threat and educate watercraft users. As part of the public education effort, the state has facilitated nearly a dozen Quagga/Zebra inspection and decontamination trainings for more than 350 individuals in San Diego, Redding, Fresno, Stockton, Monterey, Los Alamitos, Onatrio, Lake County, Sacramento and Yountville. Additional training sessions are expected in other regions later this year.

The taskforce has distributed more than 1.75 million information cards and 1.2 million letters to registered boaters and other water users around the state about the Quagga and Zebra mussel threat.

A public toll-free number hotline has been established for boaters and anyone involved with activities on lakes and rivers seeking information on the invasive and destructive Quagga mussels at 1-866-440-9530. The toll-free number is available Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For more information on the Quagga/Zebra mussel response, please visit the DFG Web site at www.dfg.ca.gov/invasives/quaggamussel.

To learn what boaters can do to stem the spread of the invasive Quagga mussel, please visit http://www.dfg.ca.gov/invasives/quaggam ... oaters.pdf.



Media Contact
Alexia Retallack, Office of Communications, 916-322-8944
Capt. Sherry Howell, Law Enforcement Division, 530-225-2755

[Bill K]

I hope DFG inspects the cormarants, seagulls and other water birds that carry the mussel's from waterway to waterway also. Probably more so than the boats. Hum, how will they stop that ?
Bet they never even thought of that, just knee slap logic that boaters are the blame. Bill K

[kopper_bass]

Why Hwy 5, near Redding? Is that stop for traffic going north, south, or both? Is there a huge traffic of boats coming into the state from Oregon and Washington?

Shouldn't this be more at the border, near the southern and eastern boarders and also Mexico? That would be the most likely place that mussels would come from - say Havasu, Meade, or some waterway in Mexico.

Seems like typical beaurocratic crap - looks like we're doing a lot when in fact we're really doing little.

Kopper_Bass

[Bill K]

Now, now you are sounding like me. You know Kalifornia is always taking the lead in hairbrain ideas and lack of common sense. Just look towards S.F. and the legislators to see what I mean. Hope you are getting into fish. Almanor and others in this area are doing well and weather just keeps inproving. Bill K

[Brian]

Isnt that right around the time of the boat drags up in Red Bluff?

[rexford]

I have one question for this lunacy. What happens if you
fail inspection?

[MIKE TREMONT]

There is no failing, just have the proper paperwork and sign on the dotted line, you're good to go

[ash]

I hope DFG inspects the cormarants, seagulls and other water birds that carry the mussel's from waterway to waterway also. Probably more so than the boats. Hum, how will they stop that ?
Bet they never even thought of that, just knee slap logic that boaters are the blame. Bill K

I say we spray paint their tail feathers various colors to identify which lakes they are flying from if anything south of the Tehachapi's then Shoot em down with a 50Cal... no bird gets out alive

[Andy Giannini]

You will have use a non lead bullet, don't want to accidently lead poison a condor.

A.G.

[Micropterus salmoides]

I hope DFG inspects the cormarants, seagulls and other water birds that carry the mussel's from waterway to waterway also. Probably more so than the boats. Hum, how will they stop that ?
Bet they never even thought of that, just knee slap logic that boaters are the blame. Bill K

They'll form a special task force that shoots down birds like they do at some airports to prevent them from colliding with planes.

[bryanmc]

Isnt that right around the time of the boat drags up in Red Bluff?

The scales where they will be doing the inspections are on northbound 5 north of Red Bluff and south of Cottonwood, so about 12 miles south of Redding.

[Guy Kelley]

Bureaucratic ? Perhaps a bit. Harebrained, Nope don't think so !!!

WHAT would you have our State & DFG DO ? NOTHNG !?

I guess we could all hide are head in the sand and wish it would just go away.

Perhaps we could just wish the same thing of the Apple Moth, Sudden Oak Tree Death, Black line disease in Walnut Trees, Sharp-Wing Aphid, Mitten Crabs, Encephalitis in Mosquitoes, Lime Disease, Mediterranean Fruit Flies & the list goes on and on and on !!!!!

If it wasnt for the training, research and vigilantes of our State inspectors, Biologist and Special Districts like the Mosquito Districts we would be up to our neck in these and even more exotic pest than these.

I use to get impatient when I had to have my nursery plant shipments inspected when they were delivered to my job site in Napa for the sharp wing. But I got over it and now its just part of the program of doing business.

I say keep it up and add more inspection stations through out the State, if it means keeping these pest and others like it out of our Lakes and the Delta, Better to have an inconvenience now than trying to learn to live with it later like Back East.

[Popper]

Guy,

Great response to the previous posts as I had the same thoughts. Not offering any solutions to a serious problem except to complain does nothing to resolve this problem.

Ed

[Ken C.]

So, anytime before 2 or after 8, we're not checking and it's a free pass??

And as mentioned what about inbound from the east and the south?

[Ken C.]

So, anytime before 2 or after 8, we're not checking and it's a free pass??

And as mentioned what about inbound from the east and the south?

[Rough Thumb]

Doing inspections on a two day period for only 6 non-peak hours on each of those days on one highway is not prevention.

If the goal of this is truly prevention, then this is really close to doing nothing.

If it is for education, then they are doing something.

[backlash]

What I would like to hear about or from is someone who has failed a test...be it roadside, Pardee or wherever. I have heard all the places they can "hide" on our boats, trailers etc. but who has experienced them being actually found?

[jimmy87]

anyone?????????
who has had the muscles found on thier boat?