In large part because of this review, in 1994 a Boating Impacts Workshop was held at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Woods Hole, MA. In three days 50 researchers, environmentalists and agency folks reviewed the current "state of the science" regarding the possible environmental impacts of intensive boating activities. Not surprisingly, the consensus of the attendees was that such impacts had been largely ignored, might be significant in some instances, and that much more research was needed.

Workshop proceedings, including an extensive bibliography, were transcribed, distributed and posted on the WHOI website (the proceedings are no longer available there but have been posted in part on the NJ Fishing website at www.fishingnj.org/pdfs/boatingimpacts.pdf).

In the ten years since this workshop much better emission controls have been developed for both two stroke and four stroke outboard motors, reducing the levels of unburned fuel and combustion products released to the water column. However, the significant increase in the size of outboard motors and the boats they are pushing since then (a 25 foot boat with twin 150 to 200 horsepower engines used to be the "dream machine" for the go-fast recreational fishing/boating crowd, but today it's a 30 footer with three 200 to 300 horsepower engines) might be in part compensating for the cleaner engines. This, coupled with the extended service life of old - and still heavily polluting - engines, makes it difficult to judge where we stand vis a vis regarding emissions of unburned fuel and combustion products into our waterways..

And fisheries researchers who should be concerned have yet to address the impacts to estuarine organisms caused by propeller (inboard, inboard/outboard and outboard boats) or impeller (personal watercraft) generated turbulence or vessel hull passage.

We're well aware of the impacts that the propellers on rapidly traveling vessels can have on larger animals like turtles and manatees. It's hard to imagine that they don't have similar impacts on smaller organisms, either through direct contact with the blades or through the turbulence they create (if you doubt this, imagine the forces a small fish or invertebrate would be exposed to in passing through the maelstrom caused by the propeller of an outboard or inboard/outboard powered boat traveling at high speed).

Impacts of electrical generation

For years we've been aware of the possible damage inflicted on our estuaries by the cooling systems of electrical generating stations. A base load power plant using once-through cooling requires on the order of a million gallons a minute of ambient water to cool its condensers. Elaborate modifications to the cooling systems are required to reduce the damage to organisms entrained in the cooling water or impinging on the intake screens. Building and maintaining these systems and the other operational modifications designed to reduce the environmental impacts of once-through cooling systems cost billions of dollars a year, but these costs are willingly born by the various utilities' share holders and rate payers to preserve the ecological integrity of our estuaries.