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Vermont Boating Safety Course

Vermont State Police

Vermont Boating Safety Course

Who Needs a Vermont Boating Safety Education Certificate?

  • All persons born after January 1, 1974, must have successfully completed a boating safety education course to legally operate any motorized vessel (this includes personal watercraft). Vermont Boating License Course
  • Those successfully completing a course are issued a certificate by the Vermont State Police, which is valid for the student’s lifetime. No one younger than 10 years of age may receive a certificate. Those younger than 12 years of age must take a classroom course. Handbook of Vermont Boating Laws and Responsibilities

Personal Flotation Devices (PFDs)

All vessels, except sailboards, must carry one wearable U.S. Coast Guard–approved Type I, II, III, or V PFD for each person on board. Types of PFD’s

Other specific rules regarding PFD’s Click Here

Unlawful Operation

In addition to the laws mentioned previously, here are some other Vermont regulations which apply when vessel operators are on the water. Vermont law states that these dangerous operating practices are illegal.

Careless and Reckless Operation of a vessel or the reckless manipulation of water skis, a surfboard, or a similar device is operating in a manner that causes danger to the life, limb, or property of any person. Examples of illegal, reckless operation are:

  • Boating in restricted areas without regard for other boaters or persons, posted speeds and wake restrictions, diver-down flags, etc.
  • Boating while under the influence of alcohol or drugs
  • Failing to follow the navigation rules
  • Weaving through congested waterway traffic
  • Swerving at the last possible moment in order to avoid collision
  • Causing danger or damage from the wake of your vessel
  • Chasing, harassing, or disturbing wildlife with your vessel

Overloading is loading the vessel beyond a safe carrying capacity, taking into consideration the weather and other operating conditions.

Improper Speed or Distance is not maintaining a proper speed or distance while operating a vessel or while towing a person on water skis or any similar device. Specifically, the following actions are illegal:

  • Operating a vessel (except sailboards) at greater than “no wake speed” within 200 feet of:
    • The shoreline
    • A person in the water
    • A canoe, rowboat, or other vessel
    • An anchored or moored vessel with a person on board
    • An anchorage or dock
  • Operating a vessel at speeds of five miles per hour or greater within 200 feet of a marked swimming area
  • Operating a vessel at speeds that may cause danger, injury, or damage. Be aware of and obey all regulatory markers, including areas marked as “no wake”
  • “No Wake Speed” means…operating your vessel at a speed at which the vessel does not produce a wake, not to exceed five miles per hour.

Violating Underwater Historic Preservation Area Requirements is the failure to follow the requirements that govern operation in areas marked “State of Vermont Underwater Historic Preserve.” Vessels may not operate in these areas. Additional requirements also apply in these areas.

  • A vessel may secure to a yellow buoy only if diving at the preserve. These vessels must be 35 feet in length or less and display a diver-down flag. No more than one vessel may moor to a yellow buoy.
  • When a vessel is secured to a yellow buoy, all other vessels must stay at least 200 feet from the buoy.
  • A vessel may not anchor within 200 feet of a yellow buoy.

Common Loon

Common Loon

Gavia immer

Common Loon

The loon’s mournful cry is a beautiful and haunting symbol of northern waterways. The unusual cries,  varying from wails to tremolos to yodels, are distinct to individual birds, and can be heard at great distances. Loon cries are most prevalent during breeding season as pairs aggressively defend their territories. Native Americans believed it was “The Spirit of the Northern Waters,” and the French named it “The Diver with the Necklace.”

Habitat

Common loons are migratory birds which breed in forested lakes and large ponds in northern North America and parts of Greenland and Iceland. They winter all along North America’s Pacific and Atlantic coasts as well as in Europe and Iceland. In eastern North America the common loon breeds from northern Canada south to New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts. They winter along the coast down to Florida and the Gulf of Mexico. Some loons may stay on Lake Champlain if there is open water.

Loons breed on lakes and deep ponds. They nest close to shorelines or on small islands Their nests are simple piles of vegetation or small depressions in the soil, which contain one or two eggs that range in color from pale olive to medium brown with darker spots. They incubate the eggs for 27 to 30 days. Hatchlings leave the nest on their first day and are able to fly in about eleven weeks.

Appearance

Loons have striking red eyes, black heads and necks, and white striping, checkering, and spotting on their backs. They grow up to three feet (91 centimeters) with wingspans of 52-58 inches in length and weigh up to 12 pounds (5 kilograms). Loons have nearly solid bones and massive muscles; this makes it more efficient for them to dive under water than fly. In fact, they can dive over 200 feet (61 m.)  below the surface of the water in their search for food.

Loons are named for their clumsy, awkward appearance when walking on land, They eat mainly fish, although their diet can also include insects, crayfish, and some vegetation.

Threats to Loon Populations

In 1977, annual statewide surveys of the breeding status of the common loon in Vermont were begun by the Vermont Institute of Natural Science (VINS). The surveys have found that many lakes and ponds where common loons had bred in the past have been abandoned by breeding pairs.
Reasons for the vulnerability of the Vermont loon population include:

Water levels can affect loon nesting. Rising water can flood a nest. If the water level drops— caused by reservoir draw-downs for power, for example—loons may abandon their nest. Their legs are so far back on their bodies that they move awkwardly on land.

Human interference can cause nest abandonment. Boating or water skiing too close to a nest may cause the parents to desert a nest.

An alarming number of loons have died from lead poisoning after swallowing lead fishing sinkers and jigs lost by anglers.

Some loons have become entangled in fishing line left by anglers, with serious injury or death resulting.

Increased development along lake shores causes fewer desirable sites to be available for loon nesting.

Competition between loons for nesting sites.

Predation by birds like gulls, ravens, and crows, fish such as pike, and land mammals such as raccoons, weasels, and skunks.

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How Can You Help the Common Loon?

Gavia immer English: Close-up of the head of a...

Keep at least 300′ distance from loon nests and nursery areas during the breeding season (May to August). Observe posted warning signs.

Keep a respectful distance from wild animals. Use binoculars.  If you hear a loon as you approach, back off immediately.

Don’t use toxic lead sinkers or fishing line.

Observe and report loon sightings and nesting activities.

Participate in the Vermont Loon Watch held annually on the third Saturday in July.

Hear the sound of the loon here:
Voices: Common Loon (LabofOrnithology)
Common Loon Concert (YouTube)
Loon Call (YouTube)
Related Posts:
Binoculars (The-Lake-Life)
Bird Watching Binoculars Buying Guide (The-Lake-Life)
NH’s loons and another call for help (sunapeenews.com)

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Vermont to Preserve Lake Champlain Marsh

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees check a sea lamprey trap in Malletts Creek, Vermont

Malletts Creek Marsh / Munson Flats Wetlands

The Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife is working to buy 110 acres of Lake Champlain marshland in Colchester that is home to a variety of rare species of fish and plants such as the eastern silvery minnow, black nose shiner, harsh sunflower and a threatened lake cress .

The area, known as  Mallets Creek or the Munson Flats Wetlands is just south of Chimney Corners along U.S. Route 7 and I-89. It’s home to common wildlife such as deer, mink, songbirds, osprey and water fowl, and plants such as wild rice.

Protection From Development

William Crenshaw,  State Biologist says the marshlands are safe from development, but show the scars of agriculture and other human intrusions. The State of Vermont is negotiating to buy 110 acres of the approximately 500 acres of the marsh. Crenshaw said the area will become a wildlife management area that will be open for public use such as hunting, fishing, trapping, bird-watching, and photography.

The property is assessed at $173,800, according to Colchester town records. Money to buy the property comes from fees charged to people seeking duck hunting licenses, Crenshaw said. The 110-acre parcel already was part of a federal wetlands reserve program, which helps landowners protect, restore and enhance wetlands on their property, Crenshaw said.

Malletts Creek USGS Colchester Quad, VT, NH, Topographic Map Protecting Marshlands

Protecting Marshland

James Ehlers, executive director of Lake Champlain International, said it is important to protect marshes such as Malletts Creek, and added he is happy at least part of the marsh will be bought and preserved. Plants and soils in marshes filter out pollutants before they can reach Lake Champlain, Ehlers said.  Buying the land also will help ensure that development does not encroach on the wetlands, according to Ehlers . Although wetlands are a pollution filter, too much development too close to a marsh could overwhelm its natural ability to cleanse the environment.

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Whales in Lake Champlain?

The Charlotte Whale

In August 1849, a work-crew digging a railroad bed in Charlotte, Vermont unearthed a skull and a batch of bones that were first thought to be the remains of an ox or horse, or some other large familiar creature. Indeed it was a large creature… a whale – discovered in 8 feet of clay a mile from the shore of freshwater Lake Champlain.

whales in Lake Champlain?

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The bones were turned over to a Vermont natural scientist named Zadock Thompson, who with help from Harvard University, identified the skeleton as a 14-foot, 11,000-year-old beluga whale, an important discovery that confirmed evidence that ocean waters had once covered the area.

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UVM Perkins’ Museum

whales in Lake Champlain

The whale skeleton, later reconstructed with wires by Thompson, is now housed in a glass display case for all to see at the UVM Perkins Geology Museum. The whale and a helpful inscription tell about continental glaciers, changing climates, and evolving sea and land formations. A visitor can’t help but imagine the puzzlement of the laborers when they uncovered the whale, the excitement of Thompson as he pieced together the skeletal puzzle, and more to the point: how dramatically the landscape and flora and fauna of the region have changed over 11,000 years.

What can we learn from the Charlotte whale? That some 24,000 years ago a continental glacier covered the area with ice a mile deep. As the earth’s climate warmed, the glacier receded north, and that roughly 13,000 years ago the ice had disappeared enough to allow ocean water to flow into the region. That sometime during that period the whale died and ocean waters began receding, eventually disappearing, as the once glacier-depressed land mass rose.

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Modern Day Vermont Whales

Modern day whales in Vermont are limited to the Charlotte whale’s skeleton and the Whale Tails sculpture alongside the northbound lanes of Interstate 89 in South Burlington. Click here to learn about the Whale Tails sculpture.

 

whales in Lake Champlain

Whale Tails alongside I-89 in South Burlington, VT

 

The Charlotte Whale can be seen at:

Perkins Geology Museum, Delehanty Hall, University of Vermont, 180 Colchester Ave., Burlington, VT 05401, 802-656-8694    www.uvm.edu/perkins/   Mon-Fri 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Admission free.

Rock, minerals, fossils, dinosaur bones and an 11,000-year-old whale skeleton!

More About This:

Lake Champlain Geology

Whale Tails in Vermont Field

Charlotte Whale

The Vermont State Fossil

Charlotte, The Vermont Whale

 

Whale Tails in Vermont Field

 

Reverence (Whale Tails)

 

Whale Tails in Vermont Field?

The Whale Tails, as they are locally known, are actually a  sculpture named ‘Reverence’ and were created by Jim Sardonis in 1989. The sculpture depicts two tails of whales “diving” into a sea of grass and is meant to symbolize the fragility of the planet. The tails were made from 36 tons of African black granite and stand 12-13 feet tall.

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The sculpture was originally commissioned by David Threlkeld, a British metals trader, who was then a resident of Randolph, Vermont. They were to intended to be an exhibit at a conference center that Threlkeld was planning. When financing fell through and Threlkeld moved to Arizona, they were moved to Technology Park in South Burlington, Vermont where Ben & Jerry’s ice cream has its corporate headquarters.

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‘Reverence’, or the Whale Tails, is a landmark of sorts alongside Interstate 89 between Exits 12 and 13 in Vermont. It’s located on the right side of the north-bound lane. The sculpture has graced the covers of at least two books, ‘Weird New England’ by Joseph A. Citro, and the art history textbook ‘A World of Art’ by Henry Sayre. It was included in ‘Weird New England’ because the sculpture is well-known statewide, has an unusual location, and depicts sea creatures in New England’s only landlocked state. ‘A World of Art’ also includes a CD-ROM with video of the creation of the sculpture.

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‘Reverence’ is documented in the Smithsonian Museum’s Save Outdoor Sculpture! database. The sculpture was examined for Save Outdoor Sculpture! in 1992 while located along Interstate 89, west of exit 4, Randolph Center, Vermont before it moved to its’ South Burlington location.

‘Reverence’ has no connection to the Charlotte Whale, whose fossilized remains can be seen at UVM’s Perkins’ Museum. Read more about the Charlotte Whale here…  “Whales in Lake Champlain?”

Whale Tails

“Reverence” (The Whale Tails)
alongside I-89 in South Burlington, VT

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