It’s high time we realize that how we act on the water while boating plays a prominent role in impacting our marine life and ecosystem. Moreover, it takes conscious effort from our side to ensure we don’t leave any unwanted carbon footprint behind with our unhealthy practices and follow a green boating routine.
However, if you’re wondering how to practice safe and responsible boating techniques, you can refer to the following six points before heading out to your next water adventure:
1- Keep Your Boat’s Engine Well-Maintained
Taking care of your vessel’s engine is the first thing you can do to minimize your carbon footprint. A well-tuned engine not only delivers maximum fuel efficiency but also saves you money when you go faster and farther on each gallon of gas.
Moreover, it’s just as crucial to inspect your boat’s propulsion system to ensure your supply lines and fuel tanks don’t have a leak that might be toxic to marine life. Similarly, it’s an adequate green boating practice to check your watercraft’s propeller because a defective one with bent dings or blades can notably drop your boat’s efficiency.
2- Prevent Oil Spills When Refueling Your Tank
It’s also best to use absorbent pads for catching the oil spills when refueling your boat’s tank. Plus, you can prevent the fuel from overflowing by filling the tank slowly and leaving it approximately 10 percent empty. The latter practice is necessary to allow the fuel to expand as it warms up during boating.
3- Practice to Wake Responsibly
Your boat’s wake can put another watercraft in peril cruising near you. Moreover, it can upset marine life when you don’t care for their habitat and wake irrepressibly at any given location. Therefore, it’s best to minimize repetitive passes, consider nearby boats, and stay at least two hundred feet from the shore as you wake, especially from a ski or wake boat, to practice responsible boating.
4- Use the Right Bottom Paints
Most antifouling paints used on boats’ bottoms contain toxic materials, including metals, that can severely damage marine life and our ecosystem. That said, it’s always advisable to use paints that only contain safe marine materials, such as Econea, when coloring your boat’s hull or bottom.
5- Use Safe Cleaning Supplies
Similarly, the residue from standard cleaning supplies contains marine-toxic materials that you wouldn’t want dissolving in lakes and rivers. However, you can easily resolve this issue by investing in boat cleaning equipment primarily graded for protecting marine life.
6- Dispose of Your Trash and Sewage Waste Responsibly
Lastly, it’s essential to contain all your trash in lidded containers when boating and dispose of it once you’re on dry land. You should also remember that it is illegal to discharge your sewage waste in no-discharge zones, rivers, and impoundments. Instead, you can be kind to marine life by using a pump-out station at the marina.
By adding these six green boating tips in your everyday water adventures, you can also encourage others to do the same, making this world a better place to live for all living species.
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