Environmental science major Hans Bremer gets to spend his summer coordinating a small troop of soldiers fighting a war. The war is not directed against other people in faraway places, however. It’s directed against invasive plants and animals in local waterways.
Bremer is working for the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute in Manitowoc as a watercraft inspection coordinator. The UW Green Bay student will be coordinating schedules for several other students who will be surveying and educating boaters on lakes Michigan and Superior now through Labor Day.
Bremer says the job fits well with his academic interests. “I like looking at systems as a whole, so whether it’s water treatment or the movement of water from the atmosphere into the groundwater or into the lake and the ocean. I enjoy working with Sea Grant because I’m interested in seeing the system of change that happens with the introduction of invasive species into a body of water, and in working to try and solve the problems that arise from it.”
The watercraft inspectors will be stationed at various boat ramps asking boaters what actions they are taking to reduce the spread of aquatic invasive species (AIS) like round gobies and zebra mussels. Last year, a record 14,000 people were reached by Sea Grant inspectors and over 6,350 boats were checked for AIS.
This year, the program funded by the federal Great Lakes Restoration Initiative through the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, hopes to reach just as many and to try and pinpoint what changes boaters are making as a result of the contacts.
The inspectors have a list of questions they ask boaters as they arrive at or leave the ramps. Some of the questions have been reworded this year to better capture information about what actions boaters are taking to remove AIS from their boat once they leave a lake. Bremer will be able to compare boaters’ answers with related questions from past surveys. Bremer is also helping to develop smaller, more boater-friendly publications for distribution during the contacts.
“We’re pleased to have Hans join us as coordinator of our eighth year of the watercraft inspector program,” said Phil Moy, Bremer’s supervisor and University of Wisconsin Sea Grant assistant director for outreach and research. “He was an inspector last year working the Green Bay area ramps, which gives him a solid understanding of the needs of our field crew and how best to apply their efforts.”
