Officials probing quagga-infested boat at Lake Tahoe

How a 32-foot cabin cruiser with quagga mussels attached to it crossed the state line and nearly launched in Lake Tahoe is the focus of an investigation by the California Department of Fish and Game.

“This boat got to Tahoe. The question is what happened and how did it happen?” said Alexia Retallack, spokesperson for Fish and Game.

The boat was stopped at the Tahoe Keys Marina by marina personnel and a quagga mussel inspector Aug. 22 after they found adult mussels attached to the boat. It had been in the infected Lake Mead, although the boat owner said it had been out of the water for 30 days.

“It had a couple of adult mussels. Their presence, dead or alive, is what concerns us,” Retallack said.

After the infected boat was detected, it was put into quarantine by California Fish and Game, meaning it cannot be moved until Fish and Game inspectors clear it, according to Jason Roberts, an environmental scientist with Fish and Game.
The name of the boat owner, who is a South Lake Tahoe homeowner, is being withheld by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency. Fish and Game officials have also asked that the boat owner’s name be withheld during the investigation.

Retallack said there is no timeline for the investigation to be finished, but that officials would like to know how the boat avoided the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s inspection stations at the Nevada/California state line.

From January 2007 to Aug. 8, 150,000 boats have been inspected by Food and Agriculture stations and 15,000 boat owners have been asked to drain their boats because the boats had been in waters infected with an invasive species. There have been 150 boats in which inspectors actually found an invasive species such as quagga mussels or invasive aquatic vegetation.

“The process is working,” Rettallack said.

Not every Food and Agriculture check station has inspectors available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget proposes to funding for 24/7 inspectors, she said.

It is a high priority because of the threat of the invasive aquatic species, especially the quagga and zebra mussels which are impossible to eradicate from a large body of water once it is infected.

“They are very serious for our waters. They are very prolific breeders,” Rettallack said.

Because of this threat, the TRPA and the Tahoe Resource Conservation District have stationed boat inspectors on Tahoe’s boat launches this summer. The TRPA is also considering requiring Lake Tahoe’s boat launches to close when inspectors cannot be on location, according to Dennis Zabaglo, TRPA watercraft program manager.
The mussel-infested boat had been in Lake Mead, a lake infected with the mussels.
Lake Mead National Recreation Area has boat washing stations available and a high profile public education campaign, said Lake Mead public information officer Andrew Munoz.

The owner of the infected boat at Lake Tahoe told Fish and Game inspectors that his boat had been decontaminated at Lake Mead and he had a decontamination certification to prove it, although he couldn’t produce the document, Roberts said.
Munoz said the boat washing stations in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area are voluntary and decontamination certifications are not issued.

Roberts said the commercial hauler of the 32-foot boat told the Tahoe Keys inspector that there were no mussels on the boat. The Fish and Game game warden told Roberts that the driver wiped the mussels off the boat, which were later found on the ground. The Fish and Game warden spotted at least six mussels on the boat, while the boat owner said there were only two or three.

According to Fish and Game, it is illegal to have an invasive aquatic species on your boat and it is illegal to transport them on a boat.

However, Rettallack said it is possible for a boat to undergo a high temperature wash and still have quagga mussels on it. She cited a case where a boat had three separate cleanings before Fish and Game could declare it free of the invasive species.