The article reads like the typical stepped approach by radical environmental orgs. Been there seen that oh so many times with land use issues. The main guy here is an attorney who likes to row troll for Muskie. He even says so much of a stepped approach about taking on too many issues at once and ending up with nothing. This guy row trolling probably reeeeely doesn’t like the big wakes from wake boats.
So he and others are starting with the ais issue, which could be handled by enforcing the 2008 law already on the books. So why not just focus on that? Because that’s not the end game, the end game comes from all the other stuff talked about in the article, those are taking up the damage from wakes angle.
I’m all too familiar with the ais requirements, all over the place. ALL boats need to be inspected, clean drain dry or decontaminated as necessary to prevent the spread of aquatic species. Yeah wake boats hold more water than other boats, BUT all it takes is a tiny bit of hidden water in ANY boat to transfer the villagers to another body of water. SO making wake boats have a “home” lake is a stepped approach to confine all boats to that lake WITHOUT a decon. Thats pretty much SOP in areas where AIS are present.
Having said all that, on the AIS angle, all boaters need to get involved as they will ALL be affected.
On the subject of “damage” caused by wake boats there needs to be scientific not political or I don’t like them supporting evidence to create policy so that EVERYONE shares the waters we fish and recreate on. Again, been there experienced that with land use issues, three decades of it.
On the lakes I boat / fish on I have to deal with the big wakes from wake boats which generally mess up my trolling or rock my boat all over, meh, that’s just life and sharing the lake with wake boats, most of the folks are friendly. My biggest bitch with wake boats is the shitty music they play, and play it so loud it drowns out my tunes from a long ways off. Then there’s the old guys in their Ski Natiques who think they own the place and those guys are dicks.