Over and over, we are seeing reports of people missing or ignoring the watercraft inspection station east of our town.
A very important way to protect beautiful British Columbia’s waters is to ensure we don’t allow any invasive species into them. Inspecting your boat, kayak, stand up paddle board, whatever it is, may seem like a total pain when you’re on your way along the highway, but it is imperative that you do it.
The quagga and zebra mussels exist in many lakes, rivers, and streams east of B.C. and Alberta, and in the U.S. They are very destructive, cycling out all of the nutrients from the water and destroying eco systems. We already have enough to be concerned about with the decrease in our salmon and fish populations, why would we want to add another problem?
Understandable, it could be annoying for the locals who drive east and back with their vessels on a regular basis, but there is no way to say, ‘OK you can have a pass,’ when other motorists on the road might see this and follow suit. The only way to ensure that B.C. stays free of these invasive species is to check each and every watercraft thoroughly. Kudos to you if you have done a good job cleaning off your boat before hitting the road, but many of the times, these mussels are barely the size of a fingernail, and the babies can be microscopic, and they create large colony areas, which can impact the survival of fish eggs.
The mussels do so much harm, even filtering out the nutrients creates clearer water, causing more sunlight to reach deeper into the waterways, allowing more vegetation to grow under the water’s surface.
So, as menial as it may seem, it is important for everyone to do their part to ensure we can continue enjoying fishing and boating on our waters. Without nutrients in our lakes, rivers, and streams, the fish population would surely die off, and so would all of the aquaculture species that call our water home.
Also, they are sharp! Hopefully you have never stepped on a mussel shell before, and thankfully neither have I, but this could be a hazard if they ended up in our water.
Luckily, the water inspection station at the Kicking Horse rest stop has some highly trained staff, and dogs too, that can find the mussels if you have accidentally brought them this far. It only takes a quick check for them to see, and most of the time they can simply rinse off the watercraft with high pressure hot water. It might be nice to stretch your legs anyway, so don’t think about skipping this important step of keeping B.C. zebra and quagga mussel free.
The only mussels I want to see are the blue and gallo mussels, because they are delicious in a white wine and garlic recipe.
