Bon Voyage to Bad
Boating Habits
v4>
Boats and clean water can mix 44^
tab!
There is just something about
the call of the water that
draws us toward the shore—
whether it's the shore of a lake, a
river, or an ocean. Maybe it's because
the shore offers us so much. We can
fish, swim, ski, dive, snorkel, canoe,
kayak, float, read, sleep, or simply
sit and people watch. Whatever it is
that draws them, tons of Americans
hear the call of the water and follow it
every year. And for many of us, that
call includes heading out on a boat.
More than 10,000 marinas dot the
coastlines, lakeshores, and river edges
of North America.
Help Keep the Waters Clean!
Boaters glide on the "rooftop"
of lakes, rivers, and oceans. How
well do they respect the residents
below? Sometimes not well at all.
Studies have shown that more than
267 species of marine organisms
are known to ingest or have become
entangled in marine debris that have
been thrown overboard.
The Center for Marine Conserva-
tion reports that plastics account for
more that 50 percent of all marine
debris. Unfortunately, plastic pellets
and plastic bags are often mistaken for
food by fish, turtles, and other animals.
Eating them can cause internal injury,
intestinal blockage, and starvation.
Other types of trash, such as mono-
filament fishing line, plastic straps,
and six-pack holders, are just as
deadly because creatures get tangled
Eco-Boat Maintenance
If you've ever accidently splashed
a little gasoline on your hands when
filling a car tank, you know that gas
smell is pretty powerful and sticks
around a long time. In fact, as little
as one quart of oil or gasoline can
contaminate up to 250,000 gallons of
water. So here we have a dilemma—
motors on powerboats need oil and
Did you
know?
On the Center for Marine
Conservation's 1999 International
Coastal Cleanup Day volunteers
picked up more than 650 items of
trash for every mile of beach covered.
up and drown. So remem-
ber, tossing trash overboard
could leave death in your
wake.
Every time you get on
a boat, encourage everyone
aboard to adopt a policy of
carry on—carry off. And
once off, dispose of any
trash properly.
Also use onshore rest
rooms if there is no sanita-
tion device on board. After
all, you wouldn't relieve
yourself in your swimming
pool, and you shouldn't use
lakes, rivers, or oceans as a bathroom
either. In fact, a single weekend
boater flushing untreated sewage into
our waters produces the same amount
of bacterial pollution as 10,000 people
whose sewage passes through a treat-
ment plant.
Every boat with an installed
toilet should have a marine sanitation
device (MSD). MSDs retain or treat
waste until it can be disposed of prop-
erly at a marina pumpout facility.
Several marine mammal, sea turtle, and
bird species are in danger of extinction
in large part from entanglements in
fishing gear and other debris. This turtle
was killed by boat debris.
gas to run. It's easy to see that power-
boaters hold a lot of polluting power in
their hands when they pour oil and gas
into their motors.
The telltale sign of oil and gas
pollution is a rainbow sheen on the
water's surface. The solution is to use
funnels and extreme care when fuel-
ing and maintaining a motor while on
the water. Do not top-off tanks. Use
oil-absorbing pads in the bilge, and
dispose of them properly when they
are dirty.

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1 Let's
— —j Surfing
Now!
Learn what you can
do for your waterways
EPA offers two web sites describing
ways to protect waterways:
(1)	Vessel Sewage Discharges
(http://water.epa.gov/poiwaste/vwd)
(2)	Marine Debris Prevention
(http://water.epa.gov/type/oceb/
marinedebris)
Other clean boating web sites:
www.coastai.ca.gov/ccbn/ccbndx.htmi
www.boatus.com/cleanwater
htt p ://wate r. e pa. g o v/po Iwaste/n ps/
marinas.cfm
www.cleanboating.org
Let's Get
Our Boots
Muddy!
9 &
Watch Your Wake!
Take two friends with you the next
time you get into a boat or go jet
skiing. While you drive, have one
friend watch the wake produced
by the watercraft while onboard
and have another friend stand on
shore and observe the height of
the waves from your engine that
actually reach the shoreline. The
shorebound helper should also
note any erosive effects of the
waves or other disturbance along
the shoreline (such as uprooting
of aquatic plants). Compare notes
and make the proper adjustments
to the speed of the craft required
to reduce wake damage. Use
masking tape to mark the throttle
where your craft produces the
least wake.
A dirty hull is bad news. Un-
fortunately there are no spiffy-jiffy
brushless boat wash businesses out
on the water. You are left to your
own devices. Wash it in the lake?
Fagettabotit! Haul it out and wash it
away—well away—from water. Try
to use nonphosphate, biodegradable
cleansers or just plain water. The
chemicals contained in many boat
cleaners can kill or harm fish and
other aquatic creatures.
Water Sport Woes
Don't own a motorboat? Well,
your personal watercraft (such as
a Jet Ski) poses some of the same
threats to the environment as the
big boats. And because of their
size, such watercraft have access to
environmentally sensitive areas that
are too small for access by larger
boats. To make matters worse, some
two-cycle engines can discharge
up to 40 percent of their oil and
gas into the water! The popularity
of personal watercraft in vacation
spots has even led to ordinances
banning them. In Lake Tahoe,
where they have been banned since
June 1999, personal watercraft
contributed to high levels of can-
cer-causing methyl tertiary-butyl
ether (MTBE) in the lake. MTBE
is a gasoline additive used as a lead
substitute to reduce air pollution.
Wake from personal watercraft and
boats also contributes to water quality
degradation. Large waves produced by
personal watercraft erode shorelines,
disturb sensitive shoreline vegetation,
and degrade fish and wildlife habitat.
What can you do to watch your wake?
•	Learn at what speed your boat or jet
ski produces wake.
•	Reduce your speed before you reach a
speed marker, not after you pass it.
•	Obey all posted speed limits.
•	Operate your boat or watercraft only
in appropriate water depths.
•	Avoid cutting through seagrass beds.
•	Operate your boat or watercraft so
that no wake is created within 150
feet of the shore.
Career
Corner
A marine biologist studies
living organisms in water envi-
ronments.
A marine police officer patrols our
waterways to make sure the water-
ways are safe for people and wildlife.
A boat mechanic fixes boats and
makes sure that they don't leak any
chemicals that could pollute the
water.
4 Yl SSlHfa

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