Dokken: Reader criticizes North Dakota’s approach to preventing aquatic nuisance species (2024)

A reader who recently returned from a fly-in fishing trip to Ontario called the other day to vent about what he perceives as a lack of action by the North Dakota Game and Fish Department to prevent the spread of aquatic nuisance species – or ANS, for short.

Too many billboards and public service announcements, he said. No mandatory inspection stations like the ones set up in several locations across Manitoba, Ontario, other Canadian provinces and states across the U.S.

“Why don’t we do more in North Dakota? It’s just a joke,” he said. “If we’re just making a symbolic effort, then let’s not spend so much money on the symbolic effort. If we’re really going to try and stop it, then let’s put the resources into it to do it.

“They take all this money for our fees, and they don’t do a thing with it except buy media. … It’s like these guys just don’t want to act. They talk a good game, and they buy some billboards and a couple of radio commercials, but what are we really doing?”

Greg Power, fisheries chief for the North Dakota Game and Fish Department in Bismarck, said he’s heard the criticism that the department isn’t doing enough to prevent ANS.

Contributed / North Dakota Game and Fish Department

“At the same time, we likewise periodically receive the opposite – we’re doing too much and wasting sportsmen/women dollars,” Power told me in an email. “It is indeed true some provinces and states (especially in the western U.S.) have mandatory watercraft inspections, while other states – including North Dakota – conduct numerous inspections, though not mandatory.

“And in some cases, a few states implement very little.”

Still, in the opinion of the fisherman who called me this week, North Dakota needs to do more.

“I’m on the interstate on 29 and 94 all day long, and all I see are boats coming and going,” he said. “And where are these guys coming from? They’re from Michigan, Nebraska … I saw a boat from Ohio the other day. I mean, I have no idea what lakes they’re in and where they’ve been.”

Unfortunately, there are no easy answers when it comes to preventing the spread of invasives such as zebra mussels, spiny water fleas and any number of other nasty, non-native critters that find their way into lakes and streams.

Manitoba, for example, has six watercraft inspection locations across the province – including at Selkirk Park on the Red River and along the Trans-Canada Highway at Headingley just west of Winnipeg – and one mobile station that moves to various locations.

It’s mandatory for vehicles towing or carrying watercraft to stop at the inspection stations when the sites are staffed, but they’re not open 24/7.

There are bound to be times when a watercraft contaminated with an aquatic invasive species theoretically could slip through the cracks, in other words.

An extreme response to an invasive species report occurred this spring on Clear Lake in western Manitoba, centerpiece of Riding Mountain National Park.

In a May 9 news release, Parks Canada said it was banning all watercraft, including motorboats and “human powered” vessels such as canoes, kayaks and stand-up paddle boards, from Clear Lake in response to a “likely invasion” of zebra mussels.

As part of the “temporary measure,” the only vessels allowed on the lake this summer are a commercial tour boat, a vessel from the Keeseekoowenin Ojibway First Nation and boats or vessels used by Parks Canada.

That’s an extreme measure, to be sure, and one that definitely won’t be popular among anglers and boaters.

Meanwhile, education remains the preferred focus in North Dakota, Power of the Game and Fish Department says.

“If we were to have a highly educated boating public with compliance near 100%, then inadvertent transport of ANS by watercraft would be a nominal risk,” he said. “The Game and Fish Department’s ANS budget has increased considerably over the past 10 years. Beyond conventional and social media information sharing, we spend a tremendous amount of time monitoring our state’s waters and hire 15+ seasonal inspectors that annually conduct 8,500+ watercraft inspections at ramp locations we deem to be most at risk for ANS introductions.”

Power also highlighted other department efforts:

• Working closely with the state Department of Transportation and other agencies to address high-risk construction and equipment such as barges, which generally originate from Great Lakes states where zebra mussels are well-established.
• Funding and installing ANS prevention devices such as CD3 waterless cleaning units in several locations across the state, including the Whopper John Little boat ramp on the Red River in Grand Forks.
• Virtual inspection devices known as ILIDS – short for Internet Landing Installed Device Sensor – and free public boat washing stations.
• Programs to address the unique pathways in which ANS can be spread, including pet releases, movement of docks and lifts, bait, private fish hatcheries and watersports.

“Our department will continue to aggressively address this issue,” Power said. “Although we (nor anyone else) cannot assure that new ANS infestations – including zebra mussels – will not occur, we do believe our approach, including prevention and education efforts, has certainly slowed the advancement of new infestations.”

For more information, check out the department’s ANS website at gf.nd.gov/ans.