My name is Tom Crowe. Since 1979, I have lived near Mono Lake during the winters. For 20 years, I spent spring, summer and fall working as a Research Wildlife Technician for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. In 2001 I retired and I am now a permanent full time resident in the Mono Basin.

During my time doing research in Alaska, I wondered how I could apply my knowledge to enhance the public's experience when they visited Mono Lake and also support myself in the place I wanted to live for the rest of my life.

The creation of my boat tour is a work of reverence for one of the most uniquely beautiful regions of the Eastern Sierra. Mono Lake is considered by the State of California and the Federal Government to be an open navigable waterway and “tour boats” on this lake have taken place since 1905. The lake, which lies entirely within the Mono Basin Natural Scenic area administered by the U.S. Forest Service, is under the jurisdiction of the California State Parks Department and the Mono County Sheriff. Mono Lake Boat Tours are operated under a permit issued by the California State Parks Department. Mono Lake Boat Tours are about providing a learning experience for visitors to Mono Lake. As anyone who has experienced one of my tours can tell you, it is an eye opening, first hand way to discover the unique ecology and geology of the lake. Most people leave the tour with a new respect for the natural history of Mono Lake.

My tour boat is a 20 foot, ridged hull inflatable craft, basically a Zodiak with a fiberglass hull. This combination of technologies produces an extremely light weight boat (700 lbs) with the sea worthiness of boats twice the size. The Coast Guard and the Navy have adopted this type of boat for open ocean rescue. The boat's inflatable tubes are made of ballistic nylon that are virtually indestructible. In other words this boats key attribute is safety. My Mono Lake Tour Boat was constructed as a copy of a boat used by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game for waterfowl study in Prince William Sound after the Valdes oil spill. The boat's twin 50 hp Honda outboard motors are the most efficient and quiet made today and have the lowest emissions next to electric motors. Safety and environmental friendliness are two key attributes of my boat which has a capacity of 10 passengers. I hold both a U.S. Coast Guard Masters license and a California Commercial Boat Operator's license and my boat tours are covered by a liability insurance policy. You are in safe hands!