Wake Boats - The Hidden Damage

This is the second in a series of informational articles from the Last Wilderness Alliance.  It is intended to help the public understand lake damage created by downwardly directed prop wash from wake boats.  

Looks like fun, doesn’t it!  Wake boats can make waves up to four feet high.  You can surf, just like on the ocean.   But to do this, you must heavily weight the boat, adding up to 5000 lbs. of water to drop the stern of the boat and “plow” the water.  This causes prop wash to jet downward at 35 to 40 degrees below horizontal when wake boats operate in plowing mode.  This downward prop wash churns the lakebed up to 16 feet deep.  What does this do to the lake?  Let’s see.

Our shallow northern lakes have bottoms covered in sediment accumulated over thousands of years.  The “plowing” and prop wash tears up water plants and churns bottom sediment into the water.  This causes vastly more damage than from ski boats.  Ski boats ride on plane and do not “plow” the water and do not churn sediment.  In our small, shallow, pristine but fragile lakes, ballasted wake boats act like a fire hose on the lake bottom, ripping up plants and churning sediment.  This makes the lake murky, destroys fish habitat and spawning grounds and causes phosphorus and other nutrients to be mixed into the water promoting algae blooms and encouraging invasives.