kayaking safely

SAFETY TIPS

Coast Guard officials and boating safety experts recommend that anyone who uses a kayak take a boating safety course before going out on the water. Among the safety tips:

• Wear a life jacket.

• Learn how to right a capsized kayak.

• Paddle in pairs.

• Dress appropriately and learn about the dangers of cold water.

• Check the tides and weather forecast.

• Bring a phone or radio.

• Tell someone where you're going and when you expect to return.

• Learn who has the right of way in busy harbors and waterways.

Source: U.S. Coast Guard's Paddle Smart course



Kayakers keep rescue crews busy



Brandon Andrusic and Tim Gutmann were experienced kayakers planning a quick paddle around Wood Island off the coast of Biddeford Pool, Maine.
A mile offshore, they ran into much rougher surf than they expected. They struggled against the swells. Andrusic eventually lost sight of his friend and capsized, but he made it to Wood Island.

A large rescue effort found Guttman's body the next day. Nearly a year later, not a day goes by "without me running through things I wish I could change about that day," says Andrusic, an admissions officer at the University of New England. "We were too casual about going out. It was getting late; we were overconfident."

Popularity of sport growing

An explosion in the number of kayakers along the nation's waterways, on lakes and at sea is making harrowing stories such as Andrusic's all-too common. At the same time, it's putting a strain on Coast Guard and other marine search-and-rescue crews and prompting calls for new laws requiring kayakers to take boating safety courses.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Philadelphia | Seattle | Oregon | Sam | Club | Costco | Delaware River | University of New England | Anthony Turner | Outdoor Industry Association | Coast Guard Auxiliary
"Paddling represents our greatest risk in the recreational boating community," says John Fetterman, a member of the Maine Marine Patrol and president of the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators. For rescue teams, it's become "a huge drain."

In the Coast Guard, the number of kayak rescues — many of which involve multiple boats and helicopters — is escalating. "It does take us away from other high-priority missions, like maritime security," says spokesman Brendan McPherson. The Coast Guard is tasked with protecting the nation's ports and harbors against terrorists.

No government agency tracks the number of kayak-related rescues nationally each year. This is because they are conducted by so many different agencies, including local and state police, marine patrol units and Coast Guard crews. The American Canoe Association (ACA) says kayaking is growing faster than any other outdoor activity on land or water; maritime officials say rescues have skyrocketed as a result.

The Coast Guard does track boating fatalities. In 2006, the most recent year for which numbers are available, 27 people died kayaking. That's still a small percentage of the 710 people who died in boating accidents. Most died in motorboat accidents, when speed is often a factor. Statistics show 72 people died in canoe accidents during that year.

Kayaking has become popular partly because the boats are relatively inexpensive and can be hauled and used with ease. Unfortunately, that's also contributed to the accident rate, experts say.

People go to "big-box stores like Costco and Sam's Club, buy a kayak, and, boom, off they go," says John Malatak of the Coast Guard's Boating Safety Division. "They don't take a boating course, they go into an area that's remote, they don't know the No. 1 thing to do, which is wear a life jacket, they turn over and there's no one nearby to assist them."

Hypothermia can set in

Even experienced kayakers can run into trouble. "Things can go south in a heartbeat," Andrusic says.

Capsized kayakers suffering from hypothermia have been rescued by the Coast Guard from Seattle to Philadelphia.

Such accidents and the rescue efforts involved are prompting calls for more boating education.

Fetterman says he supports legislation to require kayakers to take courses that would teach people the basics: wear a life jacket, bring a phone or radio, tell someone on land where you're going and when you expect to be back, how to handle it if your boat capsizes, how quickly cold water can be incapacitating and who has the right of way in busy harbors.

Jeremy Oyen, director of safety and education at the ACA, says 48 states have laws requiring motorboat operators to take boating education courses but none require similar courses for paddlers.

Just in 2005, the most recent year for which statistics are available, about 12.6 million people went kayaking — nearly a 25% increase over the year before, according to the Outdoor Industry Association. "Unfortunately, there has also been a rise in the number of paddle craft accidents," says Anthony Turner, spokesman for the Coast Guard Auxiliary.

Already this year, there have been several accidents.

In Cape Arago, Ore., on April 13, a Coast Guard helicopter and boat were dispatched after a 30-year-old man's kayak overturned. He was taken to the hospital with hypothermia. In Philadelphia on the same day, a Coast Guard cutter, a tug boat crew and an environmental group's boat crew rescued two kayakers after they capsized in the Delaware River. Those men also were treated for early signs of hypothermia.

Maritime experts say cold water often is the culprit in deadly accidents. Most people, they say, have no idea that frigid water can send someone into shock within seconds.

Some maritime organizations, including the American Canoe Association (ACA), oppose mandatory education for paddlers. The groups say it would be akin to requiring everyone who rides a bike to take a class first. Experts say many people underestimate how easy it is to flip a kayak because the boats seem so simple and easy to use. But "it's not just a sports activity, it's a maritime activity, and people lose sight of what happens when you get out on the water and it's cold," says Christopher Cunningham, editor of the bi-monthly Sea Kayaker magazine.

Andrusic says his and Gutmann's biggest mistakes were not taking a phone or radio and not telling anyone where they were going.

"As kayaking gets more popular, people might be a little cavalier," he says. "Going out on the water should never be taken lightly."

summer temps /cold water

It may feel like summer, but the Coast Guard and New Hampshire's Marine Patrol want boaters to know that the water in the Northeast is dangerously cold.

"Plain and simple: Cold water shocks, incapacitates and kills," said Al Johnson, a Coast Guard recreational boating specialist.

At least three people have died in near-freezing waters in the Northeast this spring, including a canoeist in Mattituck, N.Y., a kayaker in Jamaica, Vt., and a man who tried to save a youngster who was struggling in 38-degree water in Lancaster, N.H.

The Coast Guard issued a cold water safety advisory Wednesday for anyone hoping to take advantage of the warm weather by doing some boating. Johnson says water temperatures in lakes and ponds remain close the freezing point and are not even remotely tolerable.

David Barrett, head of New Hampshire's Safety Services Division, says low water temperatures are a special hazard for small craft.

"Anyone who capsizes or falls overboard can only survive for a few minutes because of the stress that cold water places on the body," Barrett said. "It rapidly saps the strength of even a strong swimmer."

He said water temperatures of 60 degrees or below are considered cold, and temperatures are around 40 degrees in most New Hampshire waterways.

Safety tips for early season boaters include wearing life jackets and insisting that passengers or paddling partners wear them as well.

A Vermont Game Warden /former Mainer

Tough competition would not deter this game warden

April 6, 2008

By DENNIS JENSEN

She carries a pistol, is on the lookout for bad guys and, by her own definition, gets paid for doing what she loves to do.

While Morgan Jones goes about her job just like another other law enforcement officer, she is certainly unique. Jones is the only female Vermont game warden out of a force of 41 — out patrolling the woods and waters of the Green Mountain State.

The 27-year-old Jones talked about her career during a recent hour-long interview. She said she enjoys her work, particularly because it keeps her in the outdoors.

"I pick up dead things. I lift heavy things. It's amazing," she said with a smile. "I drag dead deer all the time and you have to be physically able to do that."

Despite being physically capable of performing the multiple tasks of a full-time warden, Jones said that, at times, men assume she is in need of assistance because she is a woman.

"I still have people who say, 'Do you want me to carry that for you?" I say, "'No, this is what I do.'"

But Jones is savvy enough not to be offended by such talk. She understands that folks are just trying to be helpful.

After working as a deputy game warden starting in 2003, Jones attained full-time warden status in October 2005.

Like other wardens around the state, Jones has a big chunk of territory to cover. Working out of Rutland, she is responsible for the towns of Rutland, West Rutland, Ira, Proctor, Pittsford, Pittsfield, Mendon, Killington and Chittenden.

Jones said that, while there are many rewarding aspects of her work, it was difficult to pinpoint anything in particular. But she said that "catching the bad guys" is near the top of the list.

"It's very, very exciting to take a case from the beginning to the end," she said.

Giving aid and comfort to people when it's needed, like the time she picked up several lost snowboarders who wondered off a trail at Killington, is another rewarding part of her job.

"We get plenty of opportunities to help people," Jones said. "Game wardens do a lot of search and rescue. Anything that has a positive impact is rewarding."



Moose rescue

While over the past year there have been two sad stories involving people-friendly moose that have been "put down" by game wardens — as is the policy of the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department — Jones had a moose encounter with a happy ending.

Last year, Jones was called about "an injured moose laying down in a creek" on the Chittenden Dam Road in Chittenden.

"It was early spring, last year's calf. She was laying there and she wasn't getting out of the creek," Jones said.

So Jones started to shout at the moose and it responded — "a good sign," she said.

Efforts to get the moose up were fruitless, Jones said, and then it dawned on her: The young moose was stuck in deep mud and couldn't move its back legs.

"I was very concerned that she was injured," she said. "Most of the time, when an animal is injured, we put them down."

Realizing it was both too dangerous and impractical to try to physically move the moose, Jones backed her truck up and, using the winch wardens utilize to haul dead moose onto the bed, she pulled the cable out, took a length of rope and tied the rope around the moose's neck.

"She looked very, very scared," Jones said.

Another warden arrived and, after a few tries, they managed to pull the moose free.

"After she stood up, she gave me this look that said, 'I'm having the worst day.' Then she moved herself out to the sunshine and began nibbling on a tree," Jones said. "It looked like she was going to be fine."

Jones grew up in Connecticut, Maine and Virginia. She graduated from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., with a major in biology and a minor in oceanography.

Collecting badly mangled deer off the side of roads is part of the job, but it can sometimes be stomach-churning, Jones said.

"We do plenty of stuff that is gross," she said.

Last fall, it went way beyond gross.

"I picked up so many deer in this one area. Where I was dumping the deer, I had so many that I had to step on deer carcasses that were in the way. When I stopped on one, it squished and a bunch of maggots came out of the deer carcass," she said.



Kayak patrol

Col. Robert Rooks, the director of law enforcement for Fish & Wildlife, described Jones as "a real asset" to the warden force.

"She's doing very well," her top superior said. "She's doing a great job in the Rutland area. We're really happy with her."

Rooks said that Jones set her goal to become a game warden and didn't let go it.

"I have a lot of respect for her because of her determination," he said. "She worked a couple of years to meet the fitness standards."

Rooks said that, because the job has become so desirable, Fish & Wildlife had the luxury of increasing the standards for getting into the warden force.

"We've had as many as 600 people apply for one position," he said. "We've still getting 150 applicants per opening, so that gives you an idea of the kind of competition you're up against if you want to become a game warden."

Jones's degree in biology has helped her enormously in the field, Rooks said.

"She is very knowledgeable," he said. "She brings experience and knowledge in wildlife, which is certainly an asset to being a state game warden."

Jones said the real perks of her job include the flexibility, in terms of the hours she must work, and the fact that she spends so much time outdoors.

"We get to do all sorts of stuff that other people pay to do, recreationally. I get to drive a boat, a snowmobile, have access to an ATV and I have a kayak. I love my kayak," she said.

"I was out patrolling in my kayak on the Chittenden Reservoir and it was an absolutely beautiful day," Jones said. "I paddled into a cove, called my mom (who was stuck in an office) and said, 'Guess what I'm getting paid to do today?'"

Her family has been very supportive of her career choice, Jones said.

"They think it's great. They're very, very proud of me, particularly my father. They are big animal lovers. He loves the fact that I'm protecting critters from being taken when they shouldn't be," she said.

And what about that gender thing?

"The other game wardens are great about it," Jones said. "They treat me just like anyone else."

The public, however, sometimes assumes that a game warden simply must be a man, she said.

"They're not very blatant about it," Jones said. "Often there's a lot of confusion. That's very obvious. People call my house and they ask for Morgan. Morgan is a unisex name. And I'll say that this is she. And they so, 'No, I'm looking for the game warden.' That really happens. Just the other day, again someone called."

Jones picked up the phone. The caller said: "Is this the game warden's house? Is the fellow around? Your husband is the game warden, right?'"

Jones smiles while talking about the big assumption.

"The confusion is not a big deal," she said. "It's just amusing."

Contact Dennis Jensen at dennis.jensen@rutlandherald.com

iced pike

neighbors son catches first BIG pike

Water quality counts

by; Linda Bacon

‘The term water quality has been used interchangeably with the concept of water clarity in Maine for
three decades or so. And until very recently, presence or absence of algal blooms provided a ‘barometer’ associated
with swimming enjoyment in a particular lake. Occasionally, someone might not feel well a day or two after a
swimming experience, but this might never be linked to the swimming experience.
Last year this changed. Two or three public freshwater swimming beaches were closed, two due to viral contamination,
the other due to bacterial contamination. These closures were widely publicized by the media and resulted
in scrambling on the part of both local and statewide health officials to evaluate the situation and communicate
results to the public. Over the winter, three state agencies (DEP, DHS and DMR) have been cooperating to provide
future guidance to individuals, local officials and each other.
Healthy swimming is becoming more of an issue in Maine for a
number of reasons. We have experienced warmer and dryer summers
over the past decade. Warmer water promotes bacterial
growth/survival. Dryer weather means that water in a swimming
area may not flush frequently. We also have a higher population in
many areas now. More people means more people swimming. It
may be that a swimming location can only ‘support’ so many bodies
over a given period of time without developing a health issue.
An additional consideration for this season is that folks may choose
to stay closer to home for their vacations. This might be great for
Maine’s tourism industry, but it may put a pressure on our freshwater
beaches unlike any we’ve had in the past.
As a volunteer monitor in your community, you may be asked about
this issue or may have the opportunity to bring it to the
attention of local officials and private beach operators.
The first defense is education about swimming
hygiene. Many of us have taken swimming lessons
in a private pool and have been required to shower
before entering the water. (As a kid I thought this
rule was ridiculous. After all, I was going to get wet
anyway...why bother with a shower?) The same routine should be
followed when swimming at a public beach. The national Center for
Disease Control has published a list of ‘pleas’ to promote healthy
swimming (please refer to “Healthy Swimming Tips”).
Weather resistant signs should be available to post at swimming
areas. A strategy for monitoring bacteria is being developed for
beach managers to follow. The list of Healthy Swimming ‘Pleas’ will
be distributed to towns for reproduction at the town’s discretion. A
set of town response guidelines and state response guidelines based
on last year’s experiences, are being drafted so that the ‘wheel not
need to be reinvented’ each time this health issue arises. This website
will be updated as these items become available. I encourage
you to visit the site and share the site address with others in your
community.
=
Quality Counts!
Linda Bacon, Maine DEP Advisor
Additional information is being assembled
and much of it is being posted at the
following website:
http://www.state.me.us/dep/blwq/docbeacha

Bird watching on Snow pond...soon

one of the best wildlife-viewing paddling experiences in central Maine, head to the marshy southern end of Messalonskee Lake, the second largest of the seven Belgrade Lakes. Follow the Belgrade Road (Routes 8-11-27) north from Augusta to Belgrade. Put in at the state boat launch site on the right just before crossing the bridge over Belgrade Stream.
Because of a severe invasion of aquatic vegetation (milfoil) in the southern portion of the lake, this launch site is only open for hand-carried watercraft.
Refer to the Delorme Maine Atlas and Gazetteer map No. 12. Be sure to bring a pair of binoculars. From warblers to bald eagles, turtles to bullfrogs, cattails to carnivorous pitcher plants, you will experience a wide variety of flora and fauna. But the real show stopper is the colony of nesting black terns.

Black terns have experienced a steady population decline throughout North America the past few decades because of widespread loss of freshwater marshes. Messalonskee Lake is one of only five locations in Maine where black terns return in late May to breed and raise their young before moving on to the coast in July. In September, they will begin their annual flight south to wintering grounds in Central and South America. There are only about 70 breeding pairs nesting in Maine each summer. This is the rare opportunity to see them on their nesting grounds before they leave.
Our plan was to paddle along the undeveloped marshy southern margins of the lake and to stay south of the sprawl of cottages extending up both sides of the lake to the town of Oakland. From the boat launch site, a wide channel leads a mile out through acres of marsh to the open lake. The channel is marked with green and red buoys. There is a good chance that each buoy will be topped by a solitary black tern resting its weary wings from migrating, feeding, and raising a family.
To the left, Belgrade Stream empties into the lake under the Belgrade Road bridge. Starting out in a light fog, we headed out the channel and turned right to explore the eastern edge of the marsh. It became obvious immediately that our plan for the morning was a little too ambitious and that we would not be exploring very far up Belgrade Stream on the return. We would be too busy handing binoculars back and forth, and spending more time sitting and viewing than paddling. We would end up paddling seven miles in the lake and two miles in Belgrade Stream over a five hour period.

If you love the brilliant flash of the red wing patches of the male red-winged blackbird, you will have come to the right place. It seemed that every cattail stalk and maple sapling had a resident blackbird. Their joyous chortling filled the marsh air. Is there anything blacker than the head of a loon, or redder than the patch of a red-winged blackbird? The marsh was also ablaze with the soft pink colors of bog laurel and rhodora. Pitcher plant leaves dotted the shoreside hummocks of vegetation. Mats of yellow pond lilies punctuated the undulating border of the marsh.

We spied a large hawk flying back and forth only a few feet above the marsh grasses, its white underbelly flashing in the morning sun. Given the spring bounty of birdlife and small rodents, we imagined it must have been like a salad bar for the hawk. We looked up into a nearby pine and saw a mature bald eagle calmly surveying the scene below, perhaps letting the hawk do the work, and then later inviting itself in for a part of the meal. The world had been reduced to its simplest terms before our eyes. Eat or be eaten.

STATELY EAGLES KEEP WATCH.

It is possible during high water to follow a narrow channel a mile back into the marsh on the southeastern edge of the lake. At one point we were bordered on both sides by dense stands of dried cattail stalks towering three feet over our heads. We were sealed in from any sounds of civilization. Woodpecker drumming echoed throughout the woods to the east punctuated only by the curious midmorning hoots of an owl whose biological clock must have malfunctioned.
We headed back out into the lake and were immediately greeted by the honking of geese flying toward us. Seven geese splashed down a hundred yards away. A pair of loons slipped under the water as we approached. We headed in a northwesterly direction back across the lake to a small islet with four evergreen trees on it. Two white dots topped the tallest tree. The binoculars revealed two mature bald eagles sitting shoulder to shoulder gazing out over the lake. We paddled over and looked straight up into their steadfast eyes, their great yellow beaks and majestic white heads looking down at us. We felt very insignificant. Directly across the water on the western shoreline stood their huge nest of sticks in a pine adjacent to the railroad tracks that follow the shoreline north toward Oakland.

Following the indentation of the marsh along the southwestern edge of the lake, we encountered many logs with painted turtles sunning on them. On one log, five turtles plopped off one by one as we approached. Black terns were everywhere, wheeling through the sky, swooping down to the surface of the lake to snatch a morsel of food, servicing and protecting their nest sites in the marsh grasses. We made sure to paddle farther out from shore so our presence would not bother the nesting terns in any way.

June will soon be here, and so are the birds at Messalonskee Lake. For one last avian delight, paddle under the Belgrade Stream bridge. Scores of barn swallows are nesting under the bridge and will greet you with a very loud welcome. Further up the stream, paddlers often see river otters.

Michael Perry is founder of Dreams Unlimited, specializing in inspiring outdoor slide programs for businesses, schools and civic groups. He can be reached at: dreams @ime.net

Ice fishing on Snow Pond/ice is nice

A reprint from the Kennebec Journal 2/0/2008

great story


OUTDOORS: 'Slow Pond' a Hot Spot Messalonskee Lake a popular gathering point for fish and fishermen alike

Bookmark & share:

E-mail this page E-mail a letter to the editor Reader Comments (below)

By TRAVIS BARRETT

SIDNEY -- Officially, it's known as Messalonskee Lake, a long, relatively deep body of water dividing three towns in central Maine. Locals often refer to it by its more colloquial moniker, Snow Pond. Anglers have another name for the place that plays off that nickname -- "Slow Pond."

Despite its unflattering representation in that name, it's one ice fishermen use rather affectionately. And though it's reputation for trying the patience of those who carve holes through its frozen surface, people flock to it and apply harsh pressure to the fishery on winter weekends.

Why?

The answer is a simple one, according to Mike Guarino.

"You can catch some big fish in there," Guarino said. "Man, there's some really big ones there."

If there's anything ice fishing teaches it's patience, but anglers from the hardwater crowd don't mind waiting things out for the right payoff. With nearly a dozen different fish species to target, there's plenty of payoff in Messalonskee Lake.

COMMONLY UNIQUE

Messalonskee Lake's fishery isn't unique in this area, in that it offers a blend of both cold water and warm water species. What does make it unique, however, is its position as a funnel -- leading all of the waters of the Belgrade Lakes region out to the Kennebec River -- which gives it a seemingly endless array of fishing opportunity in just one spot.

One way or another, it's all connected; water from Long Pond, Great Pond, North Pond, East Pond and Belgrade Stream finds its way to Messalonskee. The fish crossover, too.

"It's the catch-all of the Belgrades," said Guarino, a fishing guide who runs Maine Wilderness Tours and lives on the lake in Belgrade. "I use that line about the lake a lot. Everything kind of flows into each other, with Messalonskee being the end of the road."

Messalonskee is stocked annually with brook trout, brown trout and splake. Some of those brown trout have been caught as far away as Long Pond, which is not stocked with browns, while some of the salmon put into Long Pond are caught on Messalonskee.

"There's almost everything in there," local fisheries biologist Jim Lucas said of the lake, which covers more than 3,500 acres and holds more than 100 feet of water at its deepest point. "I don't know if I'd really say it's a unique place, but there is quite a variety there."

In addition to the salmonids, there are also two species of bass and perch, as well as black crappie. Of course, Messalonskee is also home to the state's most controversial finned creature -- the northern pike. Anglers like Jim Bence of Bar Harbor come from across the state searching specifically for pike that grow to more than 20 pounds in the lake.

"It is just a good destination for travelers," Guarino said. "There are guides and bait shops around, and the towns really seem to open up to ice fishermen. It's a great destination.

"That's it -- it's a destination, man."

UNDER PRESSURE

The state's new boat landing on Route 23 has helped more people gain access to the lake. That could be seen firsthand last Saturday, when after the launch's parking lot overflowed, trucks set up a makeshift parking lot on the ice. Vehicles were parked five deep on either side of the submerged boat ramp.

The pressure is up this year on Messalonskee.

"This year it is, a little bit," Lucas said, noting that in the Belgrades only Great Pond receives more fishing pressure. "Reports have been that it's pretty high. That new boat landing has led a lot of people there. There was always a good-sized group of shacks on the upper end (near the closed Route 27 landing in Belgrade), but now there are a lot right out in front of the landing."

The people making the point to be there are being rewarded, too.

Lucas said that DIF&W stocked Messalonskee with between 3,000 and 4,000 splake this fall, but most of what anglers are targeting are holdovers from previous stocking classes that have grown to several pounds in size. Guarino said that the brown trout are growing big quickly, too.

All apparently are feeding on the same food that's helping the pike get so large -- landlocked alewives, fish that were illegally introduced years ago.

"The alewives are more established there, and they're pretty heavy into them now," Lucas said. "That's one reason why the fish are getting so much bigger.

"That, and there's the opportunity for them to grow," he added, noting that more anglers are releasing splake instead of keeping them the way they were when they were first introduced some years back.

Guarino refers to the alewives as "bait balls" in the water, with thousands of the fish just a few inches long schooling together in concentrated pockets.

"The amount of bait in (Messalonskee) is extreme," said Guarino, who fishes the lake year-round and estimates that more than half of the fishing trip he guides are on Messalonskee. "It's an alewife-driven forage base. There are literally hundreds of thousands in here."

So many alewives, Guarino said, is part of what keeps the ice fishing so slow. Limited to mostly smelts, shiners and suckers, fishermen only have so many choices at the local bait shop. And none of those choices are alewives.

"Of course, you can't use alewives for bait, so you're trying to catch a fish that's been eating alewives all its life on a medium-sized shiner," Guarino said. "Then you combine the lake's size with its massive forage base and it's a tricky place to fish."

Given that ice fishermen take great pride in their ability to embrace raw winter conditions while the rest of the world nuzzles up to the woodstove under a heavy blanket, succeeding in such temperamental elements can be worn as a badge of honor of sorts.

"A lot of die-hard ice fisherman like it just for that reason," Guarino said. "Because it is tricky."

Travis Barrett -- 621-5648