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Connectivity between waterbodies influences the risk of aquatic invasive species (AIS) invasion. Understanding and characterizing the connectivity between waterbodies through high-risk pathways, such as recreational boats, is essential to develop economical and effective prevention intervention to control the spread of AIS. Fortunately, state and local watercraft inspection programs are collecting significant data that can be used to quantify boater connectivity. We created a series of predictive models to capture the patterns of boater movements across all lakes in Minnesota, USA. Informed by more than 1.3 million watercraft inspection surveys from 2014–2017, we simulated boater movements connecting 9182 lakes with a high degree of accuracy. Our predictive model accurately predicted 97.36% of the lake pairs known to be connected and predicted 91.01% of the lake pairs known not to be connected. Lakes with high degree and betweenness centrality were more likely to be infested with an AIS than lakes with low degree (p < 0.001) and centrality (p < 0.001). On average, infested lakes were connected to 1200 more lakes than uninfested lakes. In addition, boaters that visited infested lakes were more likely to visit other lakes, increasing the risk of AIS spread to uninfested lakes. The use of the simulated boater networks can be helpful for determining the risk of AIS invasion for each lake and for developing management tools to assist decision makers to develop intervention strategies.

Efforts to prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species (AIS) have been widely implemented to mitigate economic and environmental harms. Boater education, watercraft inspection, and hot water decontamination are popular strategies for preventing AIS spread through recreational boating. However, few studies have quantified the effectiveness of these strategies under field conditions. We estimated the effectiveness of AIS preventions based on the performances of boaters, watercraft inspectors, and hot water decontaminators. Participants (n = 144) were recruited at public water access sites in Minnesota (n = 56) and Wisconsin (n = 1). Each participant was asked to inspect and remove AIS from a boat consistently staged with macrophytes in the same six locations, adult zebra mussels in two locations, spiny water flea in one location, and residual water in one location. The types and amounts of AIS removed were used to estimate the effectiveness of each prevention method. We observed that removal rates varied by type of AIS and location - the locations with macrophytes were most commonly removed by all participant types. There were also regional (within or outside of the Minneapolis/Saint Paul metro area) differences for some species, such as spiny water flea, perhaps due to regionally specific outreach campaigns. Hot water decontamination had the highest percentage of intervention effectiveness (mean = 84.4%), but was not significantly better than watercraft inspection (mean = 79.2%). Our results suggest boaters are less effective (mean = 56.4%) at removing AIS than both trained professional groups in this study, but nevertheless play an important role in AIS prevention. Furthermore, we identified areas of the boat that were often overlooked (e.g., winch, bow line, transducer) by boaters and could be incorporated into future outreach campaigns. We observed high variability in the actions (i.e., time spent, places looked, methods used) taken among individuals from each participant group, revealing opportunities for standardizing outreach and professional training to maximize effectiveness. This was particularly evident among decontaminators, who often made risk-based decisions to modify the protocol and relied on equipment that often failed to reach minimum temperature thresholds for lethal exposure. This study can better inform AIS managers as they weigh the cost-benefit of each prevention strategy to meet their management objectives.

BackgroundDrowning is a major cause of unintentional injury death worldwide. The toll is greatest in low and middle-income countries. Over 95% of people who drowned while boating in Uganda were not wearing a lifejacket. We explored the determinants of lifejacket use among boaters on Lake Albert, Uganda.MethodsWe conducted a qualitative enquiry with a hermeneutic phenomenological undertone leaning on relativism ontology and emic subjectivism epistemology. Focus group discussions (FGDs) and in-depth interviews (IDIs) were held with boaters in 10 landing sites. We explored experiences and perspectives on lifejacket use. We used thematic analysis technique to analyse data and report results according to the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research.ResultsWe recruited 88 boaters in 10 FGDs and 11 to take part in the IDIs. We identified three themes: motivators and opportunities for lifejacket use, barriers and threats to lifejacket use, and strategies to improve lifejacket use. Many boaters attributed their lifejacket use to prior experience or witness of a drowning. Perceived high costs of lifejackets, limited knowledge, reluctance to use lifejackets because of distrust in their effectiveness, and the belief that it is women who should wear lifejackets were among the barriers and threats. Participants mentioned the need for mandatory enforcement together with community sensitisations as strategies to improve lifejacket use.ConclusionDeterminants of lifejacket use among boaters include experience or witness of drowning, limited knowledge about lifejackets and distrust in the effectiveness of the available lifejackets. Mandatory lifejacket wearing alongside educational interventions might improve lifejacket use.

Water recreationists regularly engage in behavior that can contribute to the spread of aquatic invasive species (AIS), which can result in costly consequences for managers. As AIS prevention is more cost-effective than response, educational campaigns are implemented as a preventative management strategy. However, little is known about the efficacy of education campaigns in promoting recreationists’ knowledge, personal responsibility, and engagement in behaviors that can prevent AIS spread. This study explored the Stop Aquatic Hitchhikers!™ (SAH!) campaign by conducting survey and focus group research with water recreationists’ in Illinois and Indiana. Results from the survey research indicate moderate campaign success (55 % were aware of the SAH! campaign), and that awareness is significantly related to increases in knowledge, personal responsibility, and engagement in four of the six recommended control behaviors. Additionally, findings demonstrate that boater-anglers were most aware of the campaign (69 %), most knowledgeable of AIS species, and felt the most personal responsibility for AIS control. However, focus group results demonstrate the need for campaign enhancement, including streamlining campaign messaging and increasing campaign exposure. Policy informed by our recommendations may improve the efficacy of educational campaigns to manage recreation behavior and corresponding environmental impacts among multiple water recreationist groups.

Abstract Itinerant boat dwellers (boaters) in London and South East England speak about many internal divisions within the community. ‘Dirty boaters’ are contrasted with ‘shiny boaters’; ‘yuppies’ and ‘hipsters’ are contrasted ‘oldtimers,’ ‘crusties’ or ‘pirates’. For many, be they boaters, outsiders or other writers, these distinctions have something to do with class background. However, my ethnographic research with the boaters shows that, although class background can be thought to be a marker of how hard or easy one may find it to become a boater, the internal divisions that are found on the waterways have more to do with processes of socialisation. What matter (and what divide boaters) are the willingness and ability, or lack therein, to join a community of practice on the waterways and to learn the skills and ethics that are of value to boaters in their community of mutual support.

Whitewater boaters often choose a river based on their preferences for attributes important for their trip experience. This study explored whether preferences and tradeoffs of whitewater boaters for social, resource, and managerial attributes of riverscapes differ among a high and a low use river in the United States by employing a stated choice approach. River trip scenarios were displayed using verbal descriptions and computer-generated photographs. Results indicate that use levels were more important for boaters on the low use river, whereas river difficulty and river access fee was of higher importance for the high use river boaters, who are more involved in this whitewater activity. Preferences for waiting times and trip length did not differ between the samples. Findings suggest that whitewater boaters of high and low use rivers have a different tradeoff behavior among river setting attributes, which has implications for river recreation management.

May We Be Spared to Meet on Earth is a privileged glimpse into the private correspondence of the officers and sailors who set out in May 1845 on the Erebus and Terror for Sir John Franklin's fateful expedition to the Arctic. The letters of the crew and their correspondents begin with the journey's inception and early planning, going on to recount the ships' departure from the river Thames, their progress up the eastern coast of Great Britain to Stromness in Orkney, and the crew's exploits as far as the Whalefish Islands off the western coast of Greenland, from where the ships forever departed the society that sent them forth. As the realization dawned that something was amiss, heartfelt letters to the missing were sent with search expeditions; those letters, returned unread, tell poignant stories of hope. Assembled completely and conclusively from extensive archival research, including in far-flung family and private collections, the correspondence allows the reader to peer over the shoulders of these men, to experience their excitement and anticipation, their foolhardiness, and their fears. The Franklin expedition continues to excite enthusiasts and scholars worldwide. May We Be Spared to Meet on Earth provides new insights into the personalities of those on board, the significance of the voyage as they saw it, and the dawning awareness of the possibility that they would never return to British shores or their families.

A US Naval Aviator's odyssey through pivotal moments in 20th-century history The rise of Adolf Hitler, America's Great Depression in the heartland, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, American life following World War II, the Korean War, America's development of atomic weapons in the Cold War age, the Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, and the Mariel boatlift. Captain Allen Brady not only witnessed all of these events but actually participated in them, in many instances as a US Naval Aviator. So many Americans and global citizens alike are not even aware of the importance of these pivotal moments; as generations age and pass on, without important accounts like this one, much is forgotten. More than just a memoir, Brady's book is an important document from one of the last of his generation, reminding us of the pivotal moments that should not be lost to history. Witnessing the American Century is Captain Brady's firsthand account of his incredible life, and his memories elucidate America's role in the most significant world events from the previous century. Capt. Allen Colby Brady is a retired Naval Aviator. Throughout his thirty-plus years of service, Capt. Brady found himself in the front row to all of the major events surrounding the emerging Cold War, nuclear proliferation, America's fight to defeat the Communists in Cuba, and, most notably, his long stint as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Following his retirement, Capt. Brady lived for over six years aboard a sailboat, even using his sailing expertise to liberate exiled communities of Cubans in the early 1980s.

Numanoğlu Genç, A., 2015. A model to simulate yacht movements in enclosed bays. In this article, a computer model developed to simulate the movements of yachts (boats) in enclosed bays is discussed. The computer model uses multinomial logit model to find the probabilities for the boaters to select the next bay to visit. The model predicts the number of boats in each bay at the end of a day, the number of boats that visited each bay during the day, and the distribution of boater categories among the bays throughout the simulation time. As a case study, the model is applied to Göcek bays located at the west Mediterrnean coast of Turkey. To obtain the input data, a questionnaire was formed, and a detailed survey was carried out in Göcek bays. In addition to the questionnaires, the number of the boats anchored in the bays were observed in the field studies. The results obtained by the model are compared with the data obtained in the field. Comparisons show that the yacht movements and distributions at various anchor locations can successfully be predicted with the model. This model can be used as an effective tool in the management of coastal areas. Bu makalede, yatların hareketlerini inceleyen bir öykünüm modeli geliştirilmiştir. Yatçıların koy seçimlerindeki olasılıkları belirleyebilmek için matematiksel model olarak çok terimli logit model kullanılmıştır. Geliştirilen öykünüm modeli gün sonunda her koydaki tekne sayısını, gün içerisinde koylara girip çıkan tekne sayısını ve tüm öykünüm süresi için yatçı gruplarının koylara dağılımını hesaplamaktadır. Bu model için gerekli olan girdileri elde edebilmek amacıyla, Göcek Koylarında kapsamlı bir anket çalışması yapılmış ve ayrıca koylardaki tekne sayıları farklı zamanlarda gözlemlenmiştir. Bu öykünüm modelini baz alan bilgisayar programı Göcek Koylarına uygulanmış ve model sonuçları, saha incelemelerinden elde edilen veriler ile karşılaştırılmıştır. Gelecek yıllar için daha çok sayıda yatın bulunacağı durumlarda, bu modelin yardımıyla dağılım tahminleri yapılabilecektir. Bu tahminler yat trafiğinin ve konaklamanın denetlenmesini amaçlayan bir yönetim planı çerçevesinde yararlı bir araç olacaktır.