DONIPHAN, Mo. -- With thousands floating and boating on the crystal clear waters of Current River each summer it is the job of the Missouri State Highway Patrol's marine division to make sure everyone heads home safely.
Observing from riverbanks and armed with binoculars, Cpls. Shayne Talburt and J.T. Wilson keep a watchful eye over the river in the Doniphan area.
From their locations, the troopers check each passing canoe, kayak, boat or tube for potential violations, as well as watch the activity on nearby gravel bars.
On a typical Saturday or Sunday, Talburt said, there will be 300 to 500 boats running between Arkansas and Gooseneck.
Along with the boats, the outfitters in Doniphan estimate they typically launch between 500 and 800 tubes and rafts, said Talburt.
The outfitters start putting floaters in at about 9:30 a.m., with the last being launched at about 2:30 p.m., said Talburt.
The float, which is about five to six miles long, usually takes four to six hours, Talburt said.
The float trip, he said, may take as long as eight hours, depending on how many stops are made at the various gravel bars along the river.
"We get people from Memphis, Little Rock, Paragould, Jonesboro, even Kansas City," Talburt said. "You wonder how people find out about the river, like from Memphis."
While most of the floaters are from out of state, Talburt said, the majority of the boaters are local, coming from Poplar Bluff, Doniphan or the Bootheel areas.
In certain stretches of the river, Talburt said, the floaters will create "log jams. You'll be sitting here forever" in a boat waiting to get through.
On Current River, "we've got big boats and the floaters," as compared to Black River at Lesterville, which has "more tubes than us" and very few boats, Talburt said.
Farther up the river from Doniphan toward Gooseneck and Bay Nothing, it is primarily boat traffic, said Talburt, who indicated there also are a lot of cabins along that stretch of river.
On any given day, Talburt said, he and Wilson work the float traffic in the morning and early afternoon hours.
"We work from the brush for float traffic, looking for violations and answering calls for service," as well assisting boaters, explained Talburt, who indicated they sometimes get help from Missouri Department of Conversation or U.S. Forest Service rangers.
Later in the afternoon, Talburt said, he and Wilson then "start working boat traffic."
According to Talburt, the Doniphan portion of the river is "getting more and more boats all the time," and those boats also are equipped with bigger motors than in the past.
Unlike the stretches of the Current River within the Ozark Scenic Riverways in Carter and Shannon counties, there is no horsepower limit for boat motors in Ripley County.
"Dad (retired Missouri State Water Patrol colonel Rad Talburt) says it's not the same river he worked" given the amount and type of traffic now being seen on the river, said Talburt.
The river itself also has changed over the years, especially after it crested at the record-breaking level of 33.13 feet on May 1, 2017.
The force of the flood waters uprooted hundreds of trees along the river's banks, some of which have become obstacles in the river or now litter the gravel bars.
"Me and J.T., we run the river a lot," Talburt said. "Before the season opens, we run it to learn it. You have to know your waterway."
On a recent Saturday, Talburt worked a non-injury boating crash that occurred just above the Highway 160 bridge. The boat operator was attempting to assist another vessel when his boat floated onto a root and became swamped.
Along with the new root wads in the river, Talburt said, a few trees have fallen across the river and had to be cut out to make the river navigable again.
Talburt said when he and Wilson work boat traffic, "we need a reason to stop" a boat.
At night, he said, they can stop boats for such offenses as improper lights.
Talburt said failure to keep a proper lookout and alcohol are the leading causes of boating accidents.
As the boats go by Talburt's covert location, he said, he is checking whether the boat's registration is displayed properly and whether its operator has a beer in his or her hand.
Those are things, he said, he can check should he see the boat later in the day.
For any boat Talburt stops for a violation, he said, he conducts a boat inspection to make sure the boat is equipped with the required items.
Boats, he said, are required to have life jackets on board for every passenger; a type 4 throwable device, such as a seat cushion; a sounding device, such as a horn or whistle; a fire extinguisher in serviceable condition and the boat's certification of registration.
"It's not about writing a lot of tickets; it's PR too," Talburt said.
One PR program the patrol has implemented is giving T-shirts to children who are seen wearing their life jackets.
Talburt stopped a raft on a recent Saturday filled with an Illinois couple and four children, who were floating the river for the first time.
As he handed each child a T-shirt, Talburt told them how "we appreciate you wearing your life jacket" and encouraged them to be safe.
The T-shirts, Talburt said, feature the patrol's emblem and say "I got caught wearing my life jacket."
"If I see any kids wearing a life jacket, I try to stop and give them a shirt," Talburt said.
In addition, Talburt waves at passing floaters and boaters, as well as asks how their day is going.
On a recent Saturday, both Talburt and Wilson set up in covert locations along the river to watch it, as well as any nearby gravel bars.
As Talburt watched a gravel bar upstream from his location, he radioed information to Wilson regarding two men he believed were smoking marijuana.
Talburt relayed the men's clothing descriptions and how he'd watched them passing something back and forth between them.
A short time later, Talburt watched as Wilson motored up to the gravel bar and contacted the men.
After confirming the men had suspected marijuana, Talburt left his location and joined Wilson, who later reported they "had a whole dugout."
The men, who were from Tennessee, were each given a ticket for possession of marijuana.
Talburt said he made 12 more arrests for narcotics violations later that same day.
According to Talburt, he and Wilson made 40 drug arrests over the extended Memorial Day weekend, as well as writing tickets for floaters having glass bottles on the river.
"We don't want drugs on the river," Talburt said. "We're trying to make this a family river."
From his covert position, "I watch for people leaving the group to get by themselves," as the Tennessee men did, said Talburt.
What to watch, he said, comes from his training and experience.
Some of Talburt's experiences comes from his younger years when he would ride along with his dad, as well as other water patrolmen.
"I used to ride all the time with the guys," said Talburt, who remembers the tips he was given, such as watching someone who distances themselves from a group, looking around to see if someone is watching and his or her hand movements.
At one point on the same recent Saturday, Talburt was watching the actions of least 38 on a gravel bar.
As Talburt was watching later, he saw a woman leave her float group, cross a gravel bar and throw an object into the woods.
When Talburt subsequently contacted the woman, she was issued a ticket for littering a Styrofoam cup.
Littering tickets, Talburt said, require a court appearance in Ripley County.
"We can't catch them all, but don't want the river" cluttered up with trash, he said.
During each contact Talburt has with the floaters, he tries to leave the interaction on a positive note.
"Dad always said try to get a handshake before you leave" and "treat them respectful," Talburt said.