Jessie needs a facelift in Yellow Bay

YELLOW BAY – The Jessie B zipped out from Yellow Bay, headed for the deepest point in Flathead Lake. An ominous black cloud poured out of the boat’s exhaust, trailing behind the Flathead Lake Biological Station’s primary research vessel.

The Jessie B was built for the research station in 1989 and was named after one of the biological station’s distinguished alumni.

But after 25 years of year-round use, collecting data on Flathead Lake and sometimes serving as a rescue vessel, Jessie B, needs an overhaul.

While the welded aluminum hull is still in good shape and the design still suits the biological station research requirements, the engines, outdrives, propellers and instrumentation need to be replaced, and the hydraulics system needs to be rebuilt. Pieces are broken and leaky, and once or twice the dark exhaust plume Jessie B. puts off has caused people to call, thinking the boat is on fire.

“We’ve been limping her along for the last few years and she’s not dead, but boy it’s really time to give her some love and attention,” Flathead Lake Biological Station research scientist and development coordinator Tom Bansak said.

The station has looked carefully at its options to repair or replace the boat.

To replace the Jessie B. with a new, equivalent boat would cost about $500,000. To strip it down, and replace the engines and other failing instruments will end up costing about $100,000 — money the biological station doesn’t have just lying around.

The biological station is funded mostly by grant money. Though the University of Montana owns the station, only seven of the station’s 35 employees are paid for by state budget. Bansak said the University basically just keeps the lights on.

So far the biological station has been given half the money for repairs for the boat through an anonymous family donation and has received grants for the project, but could still use another $10,000 to help complete the work.

Two new engines are the bulk of the expense, each running about $30,000, Bansak said. But the over hauling option is still more economical, especially as the boat was specifically designed to handle the work the biological station does on Flathead Lake.

“We were really careful when we chose the design back in the 80s,” Bansak said. “It was built to handle what this lake can throw at it. It’s nice with boats that you can strip them down and build them back up and have them last another 25 years.”

The ability to go out on Flathead Lake any time of year in the Jessie B. is integral to the station’s water monitoring program, which is the flagship of the station, Bansak said.

Morton Elrod, the University of Montana’s first professor of biology, founded the station in 1899.  It was originally located in Bigfork and moved to its current location in Yellow Bay in 1912. It was one of the first freshwater labs and is one of the oldest biological stations in the country.

The station has been monitoring water quality in the lake since its inception but ramped up the monitoring program in 1977 when there was coal mining along the North Fork of the Flathead River. Water quality had notably declined in the lake at that time.

As a result the biological station has over 100 years of record on Flathead Lake and has monitored a many changes over the decades, such as changes in nutrients and sediments that cause algae growth, as well as the effects of introduced species like mysis shrimp.

“We are certainly the keepers of data on Flathead Lake,” Bansak said.

The main benefit of the research and records the station collects is the information they can then provide to decision-making entities, like Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. This helps them make the best management decisions to maintain the quality of Flathead Lake.

Flathead Lake’s water quality is technically listed as impaired by state and federal agencies due to human-caused inputs of nutrients and sediments, but its quality is still good, Bansak said.

“Flathead Lake is still one of the cleanest natural lakes in the world,” Bansak said. “The Flathead watershed is as good as it gets in the U.S., outside of Alaska.”

The quality remains good largely because of the watershed being protected by state and national forest lands and a relatively low human population. The amount of participation and snowmelt also helps flush the lake completely, replacing all the water in about 2.2 years. Other large lakes, like Lake Tahoe, takes over 600 years to flush.

Conducting research in such a pristine environment Bansak said, allows the scientists to understand what a healthy ecosystem should look like, and pass that knowledge on to other areas.

But much of that research can’t be done with out the Jessie B boat.

Work on the boat will take place over the winter, during the biological station’s slow season. The station has been working with several shipyards and marine mechanics on the logistics of the overhaul, and is trying to get the work done in Montana.

To understand the lake ecosystem researchers need to collect data from the lake year round.

Research scientist Jim Craft explained to a group of Montana State University Extension agents last week how the changes in water temperature affect how nutrients settle in the lake, and then can get mixed back in.

“To look at a lake ecosystem you really have to be out here year round,” Craft said.

“Our safety and ability to do work depends on the Jessie B. functioning day in and day out,” Bansak said.