: If I am reading news reports correctly, it may soon be the law to
: hose down your boat when you pull it out of the water in several
: midwestern states. Of course none of these are near salt water,
: but it's where I live.

: There is a huge concern with transporting non-native plant and
: animal life from one body of water to another. Apparently some
: people think that eggs, seads, and weed clippings may get picked
: up on "sea-weed" in one lake (why don't they call it
: "Lake Weed?) and still be viable when the boat gets

Ah.. we have rock snot here in some of NZ's south island rivers - came in on wading boots from north american trout fishers. Apparently survived the plane flight over and has flourished here. Unfortunately there aren't the normal predators to keep it under control and hence we're constantly reminded to hose down and disinfect gear when going from river to river in NZ to stop it spreading... a side affect of globalisation. (And interestingly the NZ mud snail is invading north american and european waterways... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_mud_snail )