By Nick Simonson

As spring conditions warm and boaters take to the water with more regularity, the North Dakota Game & Fish Department (NDG&F) reminds all watercraft users to clean, drain and dry their boats and jetskis as they depart their favorite lakes as part of the agency’s annual Aquatic Nuisance Species (ANS) Awareness Week, running from May 4 to May 10.  According to NDG&F ANS Coordinator Ben Holen, the seven-day stretch, positioned at the start of the openwater fishing season, helps provide information on invasive species to those hitting the water as the spring  warms, and instills best practices that should stick with them until fall.

“ANS Awareness week is here May 4 through May 10.  At which time many partners, including NDG&F, ND Water Resources, ND Ag Department and many NGOs (non-government organizations) will be posting ANS Awareness Week materials out there. And the goal of that week is to reach the wide variety of different water users out there on the landscape, because we all play a role in protecting our waters from ANS,” Holen states, adding that a simple mantra helps limit the spread, year after year, “’Clean. Drain. Dry.’ is obviously incredibly easy and extremely effective, and that’s why it’s preached by every state out there. If you’re looking at the hull of your boat, you want to remove or clean off vegetation, mussels, or anything like that, removing it from your watercraft.”

Currently more than a dozen waters in North Dakota have ANS in them, with the most notable species being zebra mussels, a small invasive bivalve mollusk noted for multiplying rapidly and altering aquatic ecosystems almost as fast.  Currently nine waters in the Peace Garden State are impacted by zebra mussels, with the South Dakota portion of Lake Oahe having an established population as well. Through the zebra mussel’s ability to filter up to a liter of lake water per day, a growing population can remove important nutrients and microorganisms which form the base of the food chain in many waters, impacting the growth of baitfish and game fish further up the food chain as the water becomes less fertile.  Additionally, increased water clarity can often lead to more challenging fishing and more vegetation growing in deeper strata of a water body, altering angling opportunities from what they were just a few years earlier, prior to the zebra mussels’ arrival. 

“Draining is a critical factor in that with zebra mussel veligers (the species’ larvae, which can be as small as 22 microns) at those infested water bodies, can range all the way up to 100 veligers per liter. So, it’s incredibly important that you’re draining to the full capacity. We always want to make sure we’re draining livewells, ballast tanks, lowering motors, and draining watercraft to the fullest extent they can be,” Holen explains, adding that a week of drying time kills any other trace of ANS which may remain, “in the summertime we recommend a seven-day dry period. So, if you recreate on a Saturday, the next Saturday you should be ready to go as far as the dry period. That sun, and UV light, and all that water temperature is incredibly hard on zebra mussels, aquatic vegetation and anything else that might be in that water.” 

The first line of defense in preventing the spread of ANS in North Dakota’s lakes rests with recreational water users themselves, and that is the focus of ANS Awareness week.  The second line of defense is the strategic deployment of seasonal boat launch surveyors trained by the NDG&F to help boaters inspect their watercraft when launching and loading at various high-traffic boat launches on popular waters in the state, and on those lakes and rivers where ANS have been detected.

“We operate what’s called a roving watercraft inspection system here in North Dakota,” states Holen, “and those inspectors basically operate at peak hours of boating traffic, so they’ll get on the water, interact with those boaters and we try to allocate those inspectors’ time based on risk, so they’re actively educating boaters out there at high priority locations, instructing them about ANS and how to prevent the spread,” he concludes.

More information waters affected by ANS in North Dakota can be found at gf.nd.gov/ans, where maps help point out impacted lakes and rivers, and instructions can be reviewed for effectively cleaning, draining and drying a boat to kill any unwanted hitchhikers which could negatively impact other waters if introduced.

Simonson is the lead writer and editor of Dakota Edge Outdoors.

Featured Photo: Unwanted Hitchhikers. Zebra mussels remain the focus of many ANS awareness activities, as their impact on lakes and rivers after introduction, and damage to fish species and angling opportunities as a result of their presence, are quickly noted. Simonson Photo.