A new creature will be roaming Okanagan waters<\/p>\n
Published 2:00 am Wednesday, July 8, 2026<\/p>\n
A new aquatic workhorse has been launched in Okanagan Lake. <\/p>\n
The Okanagan Basin Water Board (OBWB) introduced their brand new $422,500 Milfoil Harvester at Paddlewheel Park today.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a fun day today,\u201d said Vernon mayor Victor Cumming. \u201cIt\u2019s great to see it launched here. It will help in recreation, navigation and access to the lakes and quality of water, all of which are critical to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not only was the new machine launched but it was given a creative name as well. The OBWB held a naming contest receiving 340 submissions from across the Okanagan. Some of the crowd favourites were Lightning McWeed, Choppy Gilmore and Garfield. Ultimately the winner of the contest was Millie Manatee.<\/p>\n
\u201cMillie Manatee is great, we only got the one manatee submission and we thought it was really nice,\u201d said James Littley, OBWB cheif operating officer. \u201cMillie joins Harvey Hippo and they are just the beginning. We\u2019re hoping to build a fleet identity around herbivorous aquatic animals and hopefully we\u2019ll start naming them after ones that are a little more local to the Okanagan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Millie Manatee is a specially customized Aquarius Systems HM-620 Aquatic Weed Harvester built to meet the needs of OBWB\u2019s milfoil control program and is an upgrade on the old harvester from 1978.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s more reliable, less overall maintenance and more fuel efficiency,\u201d said Littley. \u201cIt can cut a wider swath, it can carry more weeds and so it creates a more efficient operation for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Invasive milfoil grows up to 2.5 meters long under the waters surface and it blooms in in late July and early August. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt robs a lot of oxygen from the water. It outcompetes the native species and grows thick mats on the waters surface which slows the water down and increases algae growth,\u201d explained Littley. \u201cIt\u2019s not good for fish because of oxygen, not good for swimmers because of algae which can be toxic, swimmers have drowned from getting caught in milfoil and it can clog boat motors. It\u2019s bad news.\u201d<\/p>\n
During harvesting the plants are chopped about two metres below the surface.<\/p>\n
\u201cMilfoil doesn\u2019t grow everywhere, mostly in shallow areas,\u201d said Littley. \u201cWe prioritize public beaches and boat launches first so that any member of the public can go to the beach and enjoy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe treat seven lakes in the Okanagan, Duck Lake, Kalamalka Lake, Okanagan Lake, Wood Lake, Skaha Lake, Vaseux Lake and Osoyoos Lake.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new creature will be roaming Okanagan waters Published 2:00 am Wednesday, July 8, 2026 A new aquatic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":789544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":["post-789543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=789543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=789543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=789543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=789543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}