Vehicle blows past inspectors at mandatory invasive mussels checkpoint

A vehicle tugging a boatfrom Ontario flew right byinspectors at amandatoryinspection site near Elko, B.C.

The boat inspection sites are set-up atvariouspoints along B.C.'s borders tocheck for invasive mussels.

"Despite the waving [by inspectors], he went by. So the owner drove past our station intentionally," said Matthias Herborg, aquatic invasive species specialist with the Ministry of Environment.

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Inspectors contactedconservation officers, who wereable to trackdown the vehiclehalf an hour down the road and bring it back.

The driver was given a ticket for disobeying the law and the boat was checked for invasive species.

It was decontaminated afterinspectors found mussels.

High-risk boats stopped

After a pilot project last year, thegovernment decided to set up checkpoints to look for Zebra and Quagga musselsbefore the boats slip into B.C. waters.

As of May 3, they've inspected 1,225 watercrafts and 64 of them were identified as coming from a high risk province or state.

From the pool of inspected boats, four were confirmed to have invasive mussels and seven of them were given 30-day quarantine orders.

"Itshows a lot of high risk boats arecoming early in the season. Particularlysnowbirds bringing boats up fromNevadaandArizonaand so forth that all havemusselsin them," saidHerborg.

Herborgsaysthe goal is to raise awareness and to educate boat owners to clean,drainand dry their boats.

He saysthe high risk boats that have been stopped are coming fromNevada, California, New York, Tennessee, Indiana, Quebec, Manitoba, Ontario, Arizona, and Texas.

With files from the CBC'sDaybreak South.

To hear the full story listen to the audio labelled: Vehicle blows past mandatory invasive mussels inspection checkpoint