A charge for Quagga Mussel inspections?

[Reefmo]

Here is the thing that gets me... the entire state -- shoot multiple states --- are all inspecting for mussels. No one wants them in the lakes because of the damage they do. But each governing entity has their own rules and regs. I can go to big bear lake, or piru, or pyramid, get inspected and get a seal. But if I then go to Perris with a seal, they re-inspect. Seems to me if they wanted to put that cash we all spend to good use, they would govern all california lakes the same. Have a standardized inspection and seal process. Once your boat is inspected an sealed from ANY quagga free lake, you would be free to launch and re-seal at will.

It just really doesn't make sense. I regularly dry my boat -- to extremes! I have adapters for my piping to my livewells so that I can use a compressor to blow them out. I have fans that i put in the bilge and livewells to dry them out. But water lurks. I recently fished the ocean, cleaned my boat, did the dry thing and then 4 weeks later went to Perris. During the drive, some water that must have been stuck somewhere behind a bulkhead dribbled out to my bilge. The inspector (who would have made a good doctor) jammed her finger to the hilt up the bilge hole and detected a bit of moisture. FAILED. Does the state not know that lower units, cooling systems, and internal livewell piping hold cups and cups of water??

Sigh. This is one of the only times that i wish that government was a tiny bit bigger and could manage a statewide problem well.

[DEVOREFLYER]

Oh I hear ya and have had it both ways. Had a little dribble from somewhere put a tablespoon or two or more in my bilge and had the inspector ask if I had a towel or rag to wipe it up and let me pass. On another occasion my boat was bone dry as in desert dry (bilge, lower unit and compartments) yet the trailer and lower hull had some water from going thru a puddle on the street from parkway sprinklers and turned away. Had a fellow boater turned away when his otherwise bone dry had damp carpet and moisture on the seats from the morning dew. Absolutely no consistency in inspection from one venue to another.

[BassinPLS]

Why not have a State wide computer system where they enter you boat registration each time you launch. It would be easy enough to verify where the boat last launch and whether or not the lake contained mussels. If your boat is not in the system then you go through an inspection.

[shinbob]

Why not have a State wide computer system where they enter you boat registration each time you launch. It would be easy enough to verify where the boat last launch and whether or not the lake contained mussels. If your boat is not in the system then you go through an inspection.

What prevents someone from going to a mussel-contaminated lake after having gone to a clean lake and getting entered into the system? You'd have to have this system in place at every single lake in the nation, including the great lakes, and the cost would be enormous.

What would be great is a standardized inspection and tagging system, where all lakes honor each other's tags. But right now it's different entities running different lakes and they're not coordinated.

I guess we should count ourselves lucky that all lakes are not as strict as Casitas and Cachuma.