FSH 210 Sport
Jetboaters Admiral
- Messages
- 6,855
- Reaction score
- 8,167
- Points
- 482
- Location
- Tranquility Base
- Boat Make
- Yamaha
- Year
- 2020
- Boat Model
- FSH Sport
- Boat Length
- 21
I thought it was a bit weird last Sunday when I got to Pactola lake early and the boat inspection kids were not there at the ramp when I arrived at 0700…. Took my friends out fishing and swimming for the day and had a great time.
Docked the boat and went to get my truck and the water craft inspection was set up, but in reverse, they were checking boats as they came off the water. Got the boat on the trailer and pulled up to the check station…I asked, so you are checking the boats as they come off the lake now? The young gal said yes, zebra mussels were found in the lake two weeks earlier. Apparently a scuba diver found a pair of sunglasses on the bottom with two small zebra mussels on them. Subsequent testing of the water found villagers in the water, villagers are the microscopic larvae of zebra mussels. This is exceptionally bad news as Pactola is the crown jewel of the lakes in the black hills, by far the prettiest and most picturesque.
They wanted to watch me pull the drain plug, and when no water came out they asked me if that was the only drain then requested I turn on my bilge pump. I pulled the plug in the live well and let that drain, and showed them the clean out plugs and the water sitting on top of the plugs, pulled them draining the water then put them back in upside down to let the water drain out of them. Unlike Lake Powell they did not request I start the engines and blow the remaining water out of the water locks.
They went on to tell me that if I’m only boating in Pactola then I could return no problem. If however I was going to go to one of the other lakes in the area I needed to let my boat dry out for ten days before visiting other lakes, this doesn’t make sense since they say these mussels can live for 30 days without water, and the states website states that only boats that have been in the water for three days or more are at risk of hitch hikers, the water thing I get since it could contain larvae. The girl said that if it was less than 10 days a thorough inspection would be done and if water was found in the boat anywhere they would do a decontamination on the boat. I have not been able to find this info on the states website yet so I may run up there and ask them where to find it. I read through the states website and learned the decon is the same as the quagga mussel decon, 10 seconds of 140° water or two minutes of 120° water will kill the larvae and or any mussels. There are quite a few wake boats that come over from Wyoming, and other news articles talk about WY fish and game‘s concerns about zebra mussels as there are no known infestations in WY, I certainly hope those folks take this seriously to keep from spreading these little bastards.
Could this have been prevented? I’m not sure, I’m not sure if this was inevitable or not. What I do know is that people who didn’t take it seriously before will have to now. Seems like the mitigation steps are pretty simple clean and dry your boat and it’s trailer. I’ve seen boat trailers around here with gobs of lake grass on them as well as dirt which was mud. When I was at Lake Powell last summer the lazy chick in charge that day at the decon station refused to decon my boat, just had her male colleague do an inspection and put a seal on my boat. When I tried to talk to her she just stormed off to who knows where leaving the lone male worker to handle everything. To say I was underwhelmed is an understatement. I had prepared before my trip to follow all of Utahs rules about decontamination after having my boat on Lake Powell for a week. When I had arrived at LP and went to check out the decon station they were hard at work decontaminating a wake boat, supplying 140° to the ballast tanks and engine cooling water, as well as soaking all ropes and such in buckets of 140°. But on the day I left the chick in charge couldn’t have cared less. So when I got home I turned my water heater up to 150°, I hooked my hose into my clothes washer hot water input and proceeded to flush the engines with this water, and the rest of the inside of the boat as well as my anchor and the rode, TWICE. There was no way I wanted to be responsible for infecting the prettiest lake in the hills.
So I say to all of you, please take a few minutes of your time to make sure that you do your part to keep from spreading all AIS, whether it’s quagga / zebra mussels, invasive plants, or invasive fish.
Docked the boat and went to get my truck and the water craft inspection was set up, but in reverse, they were checking boats as they came off the water. Got the boat on the trailer and pulled up to the check station…I asked, so you are checking the boats as they come off the lake now? The young gal said yes, zebra mussels were found in the lake two weeks earlier. Apparently a scuba diver found a pair of sunglasses on the bottom with two small zebra mussels on them. Subsequent testing of the water found villagers in the water, villagers are the microscopic larvae of zebra mussels. This is exceptionally bad news as Pactola is the crown jewel of the lakes in the black hills, by far the prettiest and most picturesque.
Zebra Mussel Discovered in Pactola Reservoir
Pierre, S.D. – The South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks (GFP) and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) have confirmed the presence of zebra mussels in Pactola Reservoir in Pennington County.
gfp.sd.gov
They wanted to watch me pull the drain plug, and when no water came out they asked me if that was the only drain then requested I turn on my bilge pump. I pulled the plug in the live well and let that drain, and showed them the clean out plugs and the water sitting on top of the plugs, pulled them draining the water then put them back in upside down to let the water drain out of them. Unlike Lake Powell they did not request I start the engines and blow the remaining water out of the water locks.
They went on to tell me that if I’m only boating in Pactola then I could return no problem. If however I was going to go to one of the other lakes in the area I needed to let my boat dry out for ten days before visiting other lakes, this doesn’t make sense since they say these mussels can live for 30 days without water, and the states website states that only boats that have been in the water for three days or more are at risk of hitch hikers, the water thing I get since it could contain larvae. The girl said that if it was less than 10 days a thorough inspection would be done and if water was found in the boat anywhere they would do a decontamination on the boat. I have not been able to find this info on the states website yet so I may run up there and ask them where to find it. I read through the states website and learned the decon is the same as the quagga mussel decon, 10 seconds of 140° water or two minutes of 120° water will kill the larvae and or any mussels. There are quite a few wake boats that come over from Wyoming, and other news articles talk about WY fish and game‘s concerns about zebra mussels as there are no known infestations in WY, I certainly hope those folks take this seriously to keep from spreading these little bastards.
Could this have been prevented? I’m not sure, I’m not sure if this was inevitable or not. What I do know is that people who didn’t take it seriously before will have to now. Seems like the mitigation steps are pretty simple clean and dry your boat and it’s trailer. I’ve seen boat trailers around here with gobs of lake grass on them as well as dirt which was mud. When I was at Lake Powell last summer the lazy chick in charge that day at the decon station refused to decon my boat, just had her male colleague do an inspection and put a seal on my boat. When I tried to talk to her she just stormed off to who knows where leaving the lone male worker to handle everything. To say I was underwhelmed is an understatement. I had prepared before my trip to follow all of Utahs rules about decontamination after having my boat on Lake Powell for a week. When I had arrived at LP and went to check out the decon station they were hard at work decontaminating a wake boat, supplying 140° to the ballast tanks and engine cooling water, as well as soaking all ropes and such in buckets of 140°. But on the day I left the chick in charge couldn’t have cared less. So when I got home I turned my water heater up to 150°, I hooked my hose into my clothes washer hot water input and proceeded to flush the engines with this water, and the rest of the inside of the boat as well as my anchor and the rode, TWICE. There was no way I wanted to be responsible for infecting the prettiest lake in the hills.
So I say to all of you, please take a few minutes of your time to make sure that you do your part to keep from spreading all AIS, whether it’s quagga / zebra mussels, invasive plants, or invasive fish.
