Dear Sea Grant Stakeholders,   

Sea Grant has long been committed to preventing the spread of aquatic invasive species such as the green crab, Asian carp and zebra mussels, to name a few. An impressive portfolio of Sea Grant research projects and outreach campaigns has led to formative policy change at the state level, and continues to help boaters and citizens throughout the nation employ sound prevention practices to keep these costly and damaging invaders at bay. Last summer, this work took a new turn. Following a Sea Grant-sponsored workshop on quagga and zebra mussel prevention, held last August, the National Park Service (NPS) temporarily closed Oregon's Crater Lake to divers to stave off the invaders.  

Held in Phoenix, Arizona, the workshop was organized by Oregon Sea Grant, the National Sea Grant Law Center and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and hosted by the Arizona Game and Fish Department. The meeting drew more than 80 attendees from state, federal and local agencies, including attorneys general representatives from 15 western states. Participants discussed legal and regulatory frameworks that might help keep the invaders out of western waters. They also explored a uniform approach to education, inspection and regulations to encourage consistent boat inspections and decontamination practices designed to prevent the spread of invasive species.

The NPS announced the immediate, temporary closure just after the workshop in order to establish protocols to minimize the risk of contaminating the pristine lake. The protocols will require divers to take precautionary measures before entering the lake. The 1,943-foot-deep Crater Lake is considered the deepest lake in the United States, and the ninth deepest lake in the world. Its relative isolation, along with rigorous management of the surrounding Crater Lake National Park watershed, has helped make it one of the cleanest as well.

An important deliverable from the workshop was the creation of an action plan (released to the public yesterday) that articulates needed actions at the federal/national, regional, state and local levels to minimize the expansion of invasive mussels through watercraft movements in the western United States. This action plan, along with presentations and a host of information (including legal and regulatory background) from the workshop, is now available on the Oregon Sea Grant website.  

To learn more about the "Legal and Regulatory Efforts to Minimize Expansion of Invasive Mussels through Watercraft Movements: A Co-learning Workshop," and to access the action plan, please visit: 

http://seagrant.oregonstate.edu/invasive-species/2012-boat-mussels-law-workshop  

Regards,

Leon M. Cammen,

Director, National Sea Grant College Program

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration