Motorized Watercraft- Boats and Personal Water Craft (PWC)
Tips for Boating on Lake Whatcom
Lake Whatcom is 5,000 acres in size and offers many opportunities for boating, swimming, and other water-oriented recreational activities. Espcially during the warm summer months, many lake shore residents and visitors to the area can be seen taking advantage of the recreational opportunities the lake affords and in particular boating.
The rich boating history of Lake Whatcom extends back before settlers arrived here in the mid- 1800s. Local Indians used the Lake and its surroundings for transportation, fishing, hunting, and gathering. Its use increased in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s as settlers began to use the lake for transport of raw materials such as wood and coal and moved into the era of steam and eventually gasoline powered engines.
Today, during the warm summer months many people use the lake for both motorized and non-motorized boating. With this use comes the potential to adversely affect water quality and to impact the people and wildlife that depend on the lake environment.
This section provides valuable tips to help people using motorized watercraft take steps to reduce their potential impacts on water quality. In addition to the tips provided here, if you operate a motorized watercraft on Lake Whatcom you should be aware that the City of Bellingham and Whatcom County passed requlations in 2005 intended to also reduce impacts to water quality from boating.
