Watercraft Steward Program

The Finger Lakes Watercraft Steward Program, managed by the Finger Lakes Institute at Hobart and William Smith Colleges (FLI), has been working to prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species with the public boating community throughout the Finger Lakes region since 2012. The purpose of the Watercraft Steward Program is to spread the message to boaters: Clean, Drain, Dry their vessels, gear, etc. to prevent the spread and impact of invasive species leaving or entering a waterbody. In fact, per the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation’s Regulation Part 576, all vessels leaving a launch must take reasonable precaution to remove invasive species before entering a public roadway. Over the years, the Finger Lakes Institute's program has operated on ten of the eleven Finger Lakes, the Erie Canal, the Genesee River, Whitney Point Reservoir, Waneta and Lamoka Lakes, Lake Ontario, and Southern Lake Ontario embayments.

• Provide voluntary inspections and role model how to Clean, Drain, Dry to boaters
• Provide outreach and education about the harm and impact of aquatic invasive species
• Collect data on demographics and boat launch use to guide management decisions

Stewards provide the first and last line of defense against the spread of aquatic invasive species (AIS). With a physical presence at some of the busiest launches in the State, FLI stewards are able to inspect boats passing through their launch for the presence of AIS.

While performing watercraft inspections, stewards deliver important outreach and education to the boating community about how they can avoid spreading invasive species. Stewards inform boaters the importance of Cleaning, Draining, and Drying their watercraft, and offer other important information about AIS in the Finger Lakes Region. Stewards also regularly attend public events and meetings where they provide resources and speak with folks about the importance of AIS programs while they get a break from inspections at the launch. Prevention is considered to be the most cost effective invasive species management strategy. When stewards inform the public, this is prevention in action.

Over the years, the FLI Watercraft Steward Program has grown and evolved. For example, the geographic scope of steward coverage has expanded and shifted with changes in local and regional needs. Secondly, we have increased our capacity to train and manage more stewards. Also, new technology is constantly being reviewed, tested and deployed by managers to improve data collection and analysis, training and management, reporting, and communication.

Stewards use powerful GIS-integrated technology to collect data about boat and boat user information: knowledge of AIS management methods, species found, and launch traffic levels, among other things. Since 2018, the FLI program has participated in the state-wide Watercraft Inspection Steward Program Application (WISPA) survey. Utilizing WISPA survey data, managers are able to paint a detailed picture of a launch, lake, or region. How many of our lake users from out of state? How many people per day visit this launch or lake? Our data can answer those important questions and help guide our program. Since 2016, the FLI Watercraft Steward Program has inspected over 200,000 watercrafts, reaching over 440,000 individuals across the region. In 2021 alone, nearly 4,000 AIS were found during inspections – this is prevention in action.

Many launches in our region have had steward coverage since the start of the program. We try to ensure that a steward is at every one of the Finger Lakes. Thankfully we have partners across the region that provide steward coverage of their own - see the above map for more details. Between ours and partner programs, we strive to provide complete coverage to all high-priority launches in the region. The maps above also demonstrate how yearly staffing of launches can fluctuate. These fluctuations typically occur due to staffing limitations or changes in regional needs.

In 2021, Honeoye Lake State Park and Cayuga Lake State Park were covered by both the FLI and the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP); the summaries in this report do not include OPRHP data for those sites.

Most of our launches see coverage from Memorial Day to Labor Day, typically from Friday through Monday, 10 hours per day. Some launches, such as Canandaigua Lake State Marine Park or Emerson Park, are considered high priority due to high levels of traffic, connectivity to the region, or presence of high-priority AIS. Some of these launches will have stewards present every day of the week and sometimes multiple stewards per shift on the weekend. We want to ensure that we are able to educate the maximum number of boaters, and inspect as many boats as possible.

Every year tens of thousands of surveys and inspections are completed by FLI watercraft stewards. At the end of each season, we compile the data and use it to make decisions on both large and small scales. We analyze a compilation of the launch data, but we also compare launches to each other. We compare new and old sites, high traffic and less traffic sites, as well as what types of watercraft are using each launch, and more.

Canandaigua Lake State Marine Park is one of the busiest launches in the Finger Lakes, and has been covered by FLI stewards since the beginning of the program. In fact, it is in the top ten busiest launches in New York according to WISPA data! Stewards cover that launch for 10 hour shifts, seven days a week, with three stewards present on Saturdays and Sundays. In contrast, there are other launches that only require one steward, and that only have coverage for a day or two per week.

Each watercraft that passes through a launch potentially carries AIS. The more watercraft using a launch, the higher the risk of an invasion from an aquatic hitchhiker. Each person that uses the launch has a role in preventing the spread of AIS. These launch users are an important point of contact for outreach on AIS spread preventing. Analyzing steward data can show contrast between launches. Canandaigua saw more than two times the number of watercraft than 81 percent of other launches covered by the FLI in 2021. Since we cover these launches over different days, Figure 1 only includes weekend traffic for equal comparison.

Recreation and fishing tend to be the most common reasons for launching watercraft across the region. The WISPA survey collects data on how people recreate and includes general recreation, recreational fishing, commercial, maintenance, government, and research.

Figure 2 shows that while the primary activity at the average FLI-covered launch is general recreation, the launch at Otisco Lake DEC Site sees a larger proportion of anglers. However, Canandaigua Lake State Marine Park has a larger proportion of recreationalists. We can use this information to tailor the steward's outreach approach to boaters.

Determining the rates of boaters' previous steward exposure can be important. In some ways, focusing outreach efforts on boaters without previous exposure to stewards can be beneficial, as they are new to the steward's message. Most people (79%) at the average FLI launch have interacted with a steward before (Figure 3, Left). Sites lacking previous interaction typically coincide with timing of first steward coverage at the launch and surrounding area. From the chart above (Right), we see that all seven of the launches where stewards are more known (orange), have had coverage since 2017 or before. However, five of the sites from Figure 3 with the greatest number of new interactions across our sites have only had steward coverage since 2018 or after. The public is most familiar with stewards at Canandaigua Lake State Marine Park, which has had stewards staffed there since 2012. Additionally, five launches in Ontario County have had watercraft stewards present in recent years. Boaters in that area are really familiar with the presence and role of watercraft stewards!

Prevention measures include, but are not limited to lowering the motor, inspecting for plants, and draining the bilge. Figure 4 (Left) shows approximately a ten percent increase in the number of boaters taking prevention measures after their first interaction with a watercraft steward. This is important because watercraft that had at least one prevention measure taken had approximately two and a half percent less organisms found than watercraft with no precautions taken (Figure 4, Right). More notably, prevention measures also decreased the percent of watercraft found with invasive species.

The vast majority of Watercraft Inspection Programs across NYS, including ours, are voluntary. That means that there are boaters who refuse or avoid steward inspections. When we look at the break-out pie charts, we see that reasons for non-inspections vary (Figure 5). Based on season totals, the majority of people that don't get inspected avoided the steward. "Other" can include the steward coming off a break, or a boater makes the steward too uncomfortable to perform the inspection.

"Refused" means the steward asked permission to inspect the watercraft, and the boater verbally refused. This is the top reason for non-inspection at the Waneta and Lamoka Lakes DEC Launch (Figure 6). This could go back to the fact that less people were aware of the role and function of stewards, since there has only been stewards here since 2020. However, this is the second year that Waneta Lamoka recorded more refusals than our other launches. Figure 6 compares the Waneta Lamoka launch to two launches that have had coverage since 2018 or before. This may indicate other reasons at play and may signal that a different educational outreach approach is needed at Waneta Lamoka if refusal rates remain high.

"Avoided" means that the boater purposely left the launch before the steward could get to them. At launches like Canandaigua, launch layout may explain much of the avoidance. Many boaters retrieve, and then move their boat quickly to an area outside the range of the steward. Additionally, some launches have multiple ramps or lanes of traffic for the steward to navigate past to reach the boater. Due to the busyness of Canandaigua Lake State Marine Park, their boater avoidance rate of 15% (Figure 7) equates to over 1,700 un-inspected watercraft! This loss necessitates reevaluation of strategies for improvement.

"Busy" means that the boater left while the steward was doing another inspection. Analyzing this reason for a missed inspection can provide information on peak times and could show a need for additional coverage. This is helpful for launches such as Sodus Bay, with little history of steward coverage to guide management decisions. With a rate of almost three and a half percent (Figure 8), it will be helpful to more closely monitor the Sodus Bay DEC Boat Launch traffic in 2022.

These comparisons show the importance of watercraft stewards collecting data. The rates and reasons for non-compliance across sites and over time are important in tweaking outreach strategies at different locations.