The Issue in a Nutshell:

Do you love boating? Are you familiar with  the impact your boat has on aquatic life?

More and more motorboat and water sports enthusiasts enjoy water experiences. These include people seeking huge waves in order to wakesurf without actually being attached to a boat.

Unfortunately, many waker surfers and motorboat users perceive water bodies as being limitless playgrounds - a bit like asphalt - to the effect that their water sports don’t have an impact on aquatic ecosystems. These same power boaters may also swim and fish on these same  water bodies.

The results are an increasing number of conflicts between recreational water users and waterfront residents.  Many of these residents want to protect the aquatic ecosystem bordering their dwelling yet they often helplessly experience their paradise degenerating  before their eyes. This occurs when the water body does not have the ecological capacity to accommodate motorboats generating powerful waves and/or large numbers of motorboats.

Aquatic life, mostly invisible to boaters, is rich in microorganisms at the base of the food chain. It supports larger organisms such as insects, fish and waterfowl. This biodiversity is especially present along a water body’s banks and shorelines. Aquatic life is significantly affected by pleasure boating. As recreational boating entails growing numbers of powerful boats, the negative impacts on biodiversity intensify.

Consequently the cravings for power boat rides, wakeboarding, tubing or wakesurfing require that motorboat operators are aware of the unwanted impacts on water bodies. This means that one must respect certain basic rules established by scientific studies.

Before getting in your boat and heading out on the water, make sure you are familiar with the water body’s bathymetric map. 

Two key rules to follow:

1. With a wake/surf boat, stay at least 300 m from the shore in order to avoid bank erosion, which decreases water clarity and increases phosphorus loading, leading in turn to increased aquatic plants and algae;
2. With a wake/surf boat, keep to spots that are at least 7 m deep to avoid stirring up bottom sediments, releasing phosphorus into the water column and accelerating eutrophication of the water body.