Chapter 4: The Legal Requirements of Boating
It’s the Law: On the Water with Your Vessel

Protect Texas Seagrasses

Seagrasses are plants totally adapted to living underwater. Their canopy of leaves and net of roots create a stable and protected habitat for marine life. It is this habitat that helps make the fishing great.

• Seagrass benefits the environment by providing habitat for young stages of fish, crustaceans, and shellfish, which are important to commercial and recreational industries. Seagrass stabilizes bottom sediments and removes nutrients from the water, aiding the growth of the other marine life.
• Seagrass loss in watersheds of estuarine and marine systems is caused by human activities such as dredge and fill activities, coastal development, nutrient pollution, degraded water, and uprooting by propellers.
• If boating in shallow areas or seagrass beds, you will see a mud trail in your wake where your propeller has churned up the bottom, clouded the water, and cut seagrass roots. If you see this trail you should:
  1. Lift. Stop your vessel. Tilt your motor out of the water.
  2. Drift. Use the wind to drift to and through dense submerged vegetation.
  3. Pole. Pole or walk your vessel out of the shallow area or seagrass bed.
  4. Troll. Use a trolling motor to navigate the shallow waters.
• In Redfish Bay State Scientific Area, consisting of 30,000 acres of dense submerged vegetation located on the mid-central coast, it is against the law to uproot seagrasses with a propeller.

Protect Texas Lakes and Waterways from Invasive Plants and Animals

Common Salvina

Giant Salvina

• Managing non-native aquatic plants that have been introduced into Texas waterways costs millions of dollars annually. Non-native aquatic plants, such as common salvinia, giant salvinia, and alligator weed, can cause significant environmental harm. These invasive aquatic plants can overshadow beneficial native submersed plants and lower oxygen levels; hamper the feeding of sport fish; threaten human health by creating ideal mosquito breeding habitats; restrict water flow, resulting in flooding; and increase the sediment in waterways.
• To curb the spread of these invasive species, you are required by law to remove harmful plants and animals from your boat and trailer. Before launching and before leaving a boat ramp, you must:
  • Remove aquatic plants from your boat, motor, and trailer. Check all underwater fittings and equipment.
  • Dispose of vegetation properly. Empty your bait bucket on land.
  • Drain your equipment, including the motor, bilges, live wells, bait buckets, and cooler.
  • Rinse your vessel, propeller, trailer, and equipment, using a high-pressure washer if available. Dry everything for at least five days, if possible.

More information can be found on the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department website at tpwd.state.tx.us. The Fishing and Boating Page (Boating section, Navigation Aids, Seagrasses) gives extensive information on marine seagrasses, and on freshwater exotic and invasive plants and animals.