Allen Eley offers tips for fellow boaters to stay environmentally friendly

Staying Green on the Water

People say to “leave nothing but your footprints” when you leave a park

Boaters have to leave “nothing but their wakeprints” when cruising down the water

Allen Eley offers 10 tips to help

1. Repel Invaders: Keep your boat dry and clean in between uses. This will prevent from plant and animal species from contaminating other bodies of water. For example, keep live fish in their own body of water and dispose of bait properly which means not in the water.

2. Clean Cleanly: When cleaning your boat, be sure to use environmentally friendly cleaners.

White vinegar can be used to kill mold and keep the cleaners as mild as possible.

3. Keep your head, properly: Don’t shortcut the pump-out process whether it’s an installed,

plumbed head or portable potty. If there’s no head, liners and seats and a five-gallon pail,

although not the most fancy, can be functional and lake-friendly.

4. Replace your engine: Aspirated two-stroke engines burn oil and even let some of the

oil/gas escape. Direct-injection two-strokes and four-stroke engines operate extremely cleaner. It might be a good idea to repower

your boat after a few years of use.

5. Maintain your motor: Be sure to get regular tune-ups, clean up spills, and fix leaks. Not

only will this minimize escape of fuel, which is good for the environment, it will also be cost

effect too thus lowering great repair costs.

6. Talk tackle: Don’t treat the ocean like a garbage can by letting your fishing line or other lost tackle fall overboard when you’re finished

with them.

7. Watch your wake: Wakes cause by the boat can cause erosion of fragile shorelines so make sure to cruise carefully through delicate spaces.

8. Harvest deliberately: If you are going to keep the fish as fillets in your freezer, make think about the catch and release method when

fishing. You can take a picture prior to throwing the fish back out there.

9. Learn the rules: Boating and fishing rules were not written to be a hassle but to help us keep our environment clean. Just follow the

rules and that will be beneficial.

10. Goodbye, Old Paint: There are new, water-based, environmentally friendly ways to coat a

boat. These new methods have no odor, fumes, or solvents.

Allen Eley owns a boat and a waverunner

You can read his boatingblog here: http://alleneley.org