MAINE, USA — Earlier this year, a new law was enacted to help protect the shorelines of Maine's lakes and ponds, which are home to several small birds and animals.
Wake surfing, the act of being pulled on a board by a high-powered boat and riding the waves that the boat generates, is the focus of that law, LD 2284.
"We have opportunities to address preventable threats, and this represents one of them," Francesca Gundrum, director of advocacy at Maine Audubon, said.
Gundrum says high-powered boats, like wake boats, create big waves through advanced propulsion technology.
"Which stirs up sediment, cuts vegetation, and [they have] big ballasts so they make really big waves so that you can wake surf," Gundrum said. "Those really big waves crash along the shoreline and speed up erosion and impact loons which nest right in the edge of lakes and ponds."
Multiple organizations came together to get this bill passed.
"Different lake groups—we worked with businesses and summer camps in the state and other partners to try and figure out how we address wake boats and wake surfing in Maine because we don't want to prohibit the activity, but we have to do it in a smart way," Gundrum said.
Maine's boater safety zone law requires boats make headway speed 200 feet from the shoreline.
This new law pushes that back even further.
"Using the best available science and whatever trends that we had, we settled on 300 feet short and 15 feet deep, even though we know the science at this point tells us 500 feet and 30 feet is really what is best," Gundrum said.
Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife will conduct a study on this law and report its findings to the Legislature in 2027.