The spread of non-native aquatic species among waterbodies has become a major social, environmental, and economic concern. An important mechanism of this spread is the inadvertent transport of organisms on recreational boats as they are moved among waterbodies. Organisms can survive on the exterior of the boat, the interior, attached to fishing tackle, and can be intentionally moved by boaters. In response, local, state, and federal U.S. agencies have invested in outreach campaigns to educate boaters about the impacts of invasive aquatic species and the ways that boaters can reduce the risk of spread. We surveyed boaters in the U.S. state of Illinois to determine their travel patterns and how frequently they clean different parts of their boats. A majority of boaters reported that they always take recommended actions to clean their boat exterior (72% of respondents), boat interior (78%), and fishing tackle (55%), and only 4% reported that they intentionally move organisms. We used network methods to analyze the movement of recreational boaters and found strong connections among 28 highly visited waterbodies. When we removed the 38% of respondents who Always take recommended actions to reduce risk of species spread by all four mechanisms this network was minimally altered and still contained all 28 waterbodies. This indicates that despite high adoption of conservation behaviors there is a continuing risk of non-native species transport among all waterbodies. This work shows that further action is necessary if the impacts of invasive aquatic species are to be reduced in the future.

非本地水生物种在水体中的传播已成为社会，环境和经济的主要问题。这种传播的一个重要机制是在游船上移动水体时，无意间将生物运输到游船上。有机物可以在船的外部，内部，附在钓具上的地方生存，并且可以由划船者有意地移动。作为回应，美国地方，州和联邦机构已在宣传活动中进行了投资，以教育划船者关于入侵水生物种的影响以及划船者可减少扩散风险的方式。我们对美国伊利诺伊州的船夫进行了调查，以确定他们的出行方式以及他们清洗船的不同部位的频率。大多数划船者报告说，他们总是建议采取措施清洁船体外观（占受访者的72％），船体内部（占78％）和钓具（55％），只有4％的报告者表示有意移动生物。我们使用网络方法分析了休闲划船者的活动，并发现了28个高度访问的水域之间的紧密联系。当我们删除38％的受访者时，始终采取建议的措施来减少通过这四个网络的所有四个机制所造成物种扩散的风险，该网络已进行了最小程度的更改，仍然包含所有28个水体。这表明，尽管高度采用了保护行为，但在所有水体之间仍存在非本地物种运输的持续风险。这项工作表明，如果将来要减少入侵性水生物种的影响，则有必要采取进一步的行动。