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The team at Safe Quiet Lakes has big plans this year as we continue our mission to promote safe, quiet and respectful boating through education, advocacy and legislative change.
A key issue that has emerged is the negative impact of excessive wakes from wakesurfing, and the subsequent evolution of legislation to address excessive wakes in certain areas.
We all love boating and water sports, but recent technology has resulted in boats that generate enhanced wakes. We support the right to wakesurf but just not too close to shore where enhanced wakes can do damage.
There is mounting evidence that excessive wakes too close to shore or where waters are too shallow cause shoreline erosion and negatively impact marine life and water quality as well as posing a risk to swimmers, paddlers and other boaters.
A recent in-depth study of the impact of boat wakes on Ontario’s lakes found that almost 70% of wave energy that occurred in the participating Muskoka Lakes was associated with boat wakes, and not from natural causes … “an exceptionally high number,” according to Dr Houser, a renowned researcher of boat wakes.
Dr. Chris Houser is the Dean of Science at the University of Waterloo. He has years of experience studying wave energy in Georgia, Texas and Florida. For the past three years, he has concentrated his research on Ontario’s lakes, specifically looking at recreational boat wakes and their impact. Dr. Houser and student researchers installed and tracked wave measurement sensors in more than 30 different locations in Ontario. In busy lakes, such as Lake Muskoka and Lake Joseph, the sensors detected as many as 120 to 130 waves per hour. His work has just been published and peer reviewed. We will share it in more detail in next month’s newsletter.
Last year, SQL participated in Transport Canada’s consultation on developing specific and separate rules for wakesurfing. We were pleased to see the new regulations passed in December. They create a separate regulatory option for wakesurfing: VORR 7.1. This means a local authority can address wakesurfing issues without impacting other watersports. However this option requires each lake to apply one at a time. We feel more needs to be done.
Safe Quiet Lakes has begun discussions with affected stakeholders from across the province to review research about boat wake impacts, consider regulatory examples in other jurisdictions, and discuss what can be done to develop practical solutions.
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