JACKSON, Wyo. — According to a press release, in 2024 the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) inspected 78,157 watercraft, the most since the Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) program started in 2010.
The total increased by more than 8,000 inspections from 2023. There were also 1,282 boat decontaminations in 2024, an increase from 1,112 in 2023.
The WGFD notes that the primary AIS that inspectors look for are zebra and quagga mussels; Wyoming is one of five states in the country that does not have quagga and zebra mussels, but every state bordering Wyoming except Montana has at least one waterbody containing mussels.
“Zebra and quagga mussels can wreak havoc in freshwater ecosystems, cause damage to watercraft and cause a decline in tourism,” the WGFD writes. “They also can clog dam systems, municipal water pipes, irrigation systems and treatment facilities…Watercraft with these mussels could easily start a new population. Inspections are the first line of defense for many watercraft.”
Live, adult mussels can reproduce the moment they hit the water under the right conditions, according to the WGFD.
Forty-seven watercraft were found to have mussels at check stations last year, which the WGFD reports was down from 62 in 2023. Thirty-five of those boats were inspected at the Interstate 80 Port of Entry check station outside of Evanston near the Utah border, a location that continues to be the busiest of the state’s check stations with 18,685 inspections in 2024.
The second-most busy station was at Glendo Reservoir with 9,330 inspections. The check station near Evanston also had the most high-risk inspections, 2,433, and decontaminations, 416, more than any other check station in the state last year.
The WGFD also confirms that a watercraft harboring live zebra mussels was intercepted on Sept. 22 at the Beulah check station in northeast Wyoming, the only watercraft with verified live mussels discovered at a Wyoming check station in 2024. The watercraft had been moored for several months in South Dakota’s Pactola Reservoir, where a population of mussels was discovered in 2022.
Any watercraft transported into Wyoming from March 1 to Nov. 30 must undergo a mandatory inspection by an authorized inspector prior to launching on any Wyoming waterway.
State law mandates that anyone with a watercraft must stop when coming upon an open AIS inspection station, even if they stopped at one prior or do not intend to launch in Wyoming. This applies to all motorized watercraft, as well as nonmotorized watercraft such as kayaks, canoes, rafts and paddleboards.
