Know rules for boating in Canadian waters

While sightseeing on Aug. 3 around the Thousand Islands, my girlfriend and I were pulled over by a Canadian patrol boat with OPP on the side (Ontario Provincial Pirates?). The officer seemed nice enough explaining that he was going to do a safety check and proceeded to ask if we had life vests, paddle and throwable floating cushion; we had them all. He even wanted to see our flashlight that I had to dig out of the depths of my camping box and show him that it worked at 3 in the afternoon.

After his safety check, the officer noticed an open container my girlfriend was working on and asked about it. Yup, that's a beer, great day for one, eh? The officer went on to explain that an open container in Canadian waters is illegal. That was news to us as was the fact that we had strayed into Canadian waters. In fact, not being from the Thousand Islands area, we even made it a point to ask the woman at the Wellesley Island booth where we launched if there was anything we needed to be made aware of if we ventured into Canadian waters. She said yup, just don't bring your fishing pole. No problem, didn't even have one. She neglected to mention the fact that an open container ticket in Canada costs $125 and the officer will confiscate all of your beer, no questions asked, which is what the officer promptly did with no regret or remorse. He was real nice when he told us if we hurry back to the United States we could still get more beer before they close. Great piece of info, Officer; thanks!

Now it wasn't really the loss of the beer, or even the $125 ticket, but the fine "how do you do" of the Ontario Police force welcoming us to the Thousand Islands with full wallets willing to pour money into an economy that has about three months to make a year's worth of money. And when we spoke with local boaters after the incident, most of them seemed shocked, making me wonder if we were just one of the lucky few to get this ticket or maybe people just don't speak about it when it happens to them.

It seems like maybe this is a gray area, but just to be safe I wouldn't be cruising around in Canadian waters with an open beer. It would also be nice if there was some type of public education that could warn us boaters of this possibility so we don't feel like we've been trapped and will continue pouring money into the local economy.

Chris Mueller

Port Leyden