Beach cleaning?

[Channel Ribs]

Does anyone here get involved in things like:

www.cleantyne.org.uk

or

www.conservancy.co.uk/involved/harbour_watch.asp

[codprawn]

Nah - I just let our 40' tides do the work!!!

Seriously though our beaches are very clean usually. it annoys me that dogs aren't allowed on many beaches even though the tide covers them 2x a day. people make FAR more mess than dogs.........

I did help once on a beach clean/survey to see what sort of stuff was washed up. plastic bags are NOT a problem but other plastics are - bits of rope - disposable lighters - bottles and all sorts.

I will never throw plastic stuff away but most things will break down very quickly.

[jyasaki]

We usually have an underwater cleanup in Monterey (California, USA) once or twice a year. The wharfs (wharves?) where the boat ramps are seem to be a magnet for people dumping stuff: they drive out in the middle of the night and chuck stuff into the water. In the past, we have had as many as 60 divers, 30 support people, and the harbor workforce all collecting stuff. Don't have yearly statistics, but I can recall several laptop computers, a couple of dishwashers, a dryer, a couple of motorcyles, a pickup truck, lots of fishing nets (6 foot by 10 foot framed things; no idea how they're used), warehouse carts and racks, and a forklift. That's in addition to tons (literally) of small stuff.

I actually haven't been diving the past few years; I found playing surface support for the divers is more important than having another body in the water.


jky

[jyasaki]

Originally Posted by codprawn

plastic bags are NOT a problem but other plastics are - bits of rope - disposable lighters - bottles and all sorts.

I remember hitting a very secluded beach at the north end of Dominica: Gorgeous spot, but every bush lining the beach was draped with hundreds of plastic bags that had blown in off the water. The beach itself was covered with heavier plastic bits. It was a rather sobering and depressing sight.

jky

[codprawn]

Originally Posted by jyasaki

We usually have an underwater cleanup in Monterey (California, USA) once or twice a year. The wharfs (wharves?) where the boat ramps are seem to be a magnet for people dumping stuff: they drive out in the middle of the night and chuck stuff into the water. In the past, we have had as many as 60 divers, 30 support people, and the harbor workforce all collecting stuff. Don't have yearly statistics, but I can recall several laptop computers, a couple of dishwashers, a dryer, a couple of motorcyles, a pickup truck, lots of fishing nets (6 foot by 10 foot framed things; no idea how they're used), warehouse carts and racks, and a forklift. That's in addition to tons (literally) of small stuff.

I actually haven't been diving the past few years; I found playing surface support for the divers is more important than having another body in the water.



jky

Do you have similar laws to us on dumping waste etc?

Britain is as usual obeying EU law to the letter(all the others ignore it). There are all sorts of taxes and charges for dumping rubbish and forcing it to be recycled - as a result people just dump their rubbsih everywhere - flytipping. Of course it's against the law but they can't catch them.

In Spain they have big bins everywhere and people are actually allowed to put their rubbish in - it is a very clean country!!!

[jyasaki]

No idea what your laws are.

We have laws against dumping, certainly, but a couple of hundred years of free disposal is hard to break people of.

In my neighborhood, access to the residential area is up a 2 mile winding forested road. Dumping occured there regularly, everything from yard trimmings to sofas to kitchen appliances. Cheaper than taking it to the dump. The city put up signs saying that the road "is being videotaped for dumping violations" (it's not), and dumping has dropped off dramatically (or is being dumped in the creek now rather than on the side of the road.) I actually assume they're simply dumping somewhere else.

Bottom line: Some people are..., well, never mind...


jky

[DGR]

Originally Posted by codprawn

...it annoys me that dogs aren't allowed on many beaches even though the tide covers them 2x a day. people make FAR more mess than dogs.........

Erm... right... so what exactly do you think happens to the poo when the tide covers it?

[Limey Linda]

Originally Posted by DGR

Erm... right... so what exactly do you think happens to the poo when the tide covers it?

Don't be silly. Everytime it rains there is a million times more poo dumped in the sea than all the dogs in the country could do.
Have a great poo

[codprawn]

Originally Posted by DGR

Erm... right... so what exactly do you think happens to the poo when the tide covers it?

It gets eaten by all sorts of things - and broken up by wave action - unless it's a plastic turd from a joke shop!!!

[DGR]

Originally Posted by codprawn

]It gets eaten by all sorts of things - and broken up by wave action - unless it's a plastic turd from a joke shop!!!

Agree, eventually, but not nice if it happens to be you swimming along (or boogy boarding) when a dog poo gets in your way...(to the soundtrack of Jaws... ...). The nasty coliforms etc will still be present as well.

Originally Posted by Limey Linda

Don't be silly. Everytime it rains there is a million times more poo dumped in the sea than all the dogs in the country could do.
Have a great poo

I'm not being silly. Water companies are spending fortunes in the UK upgrading sewage systems to reduce contaminant levels - why bother if 'everytime it rains' etc etc.?

FYI - if your local beach is assessed as being MCS standard, or Blue Flag, I believe that a 'Richard III' floating past would count as a fail.

It's quite simple really - if you have a dog, and walk it on the beach, pick it up like anywhere else, and stick in it a poo bin.

[codprawn]

What happens to the fish crap then???

And more to the point what about yachts with holding tanks or sea flush toilets - where do you think they get emptied???

Anyway I would far rather dog turds than human ones - and it still gets into the sea sometimes.

"Engineers were fighting to stem the flow of millions of gallons of untreated sewage into the Firth of Forth near Edinburgh last night as a health alert was issued for ten miles of coastline.
A pump failure on Friday triggered an emergency overspill from a treatment works and it is estimated that as many as 22 million gallons (100 million litres) of sewage have been discharged from a pipe into the seabed near the Seafield waste-water treatment plant. At one stage 1,000 litres of raw sewage from up to 800,000 homes in the Scottish capital were being pumped out every second."

That would take quite a few dogs to compete.............

[codprawn]

Still British beaches are sptless compared to those in the Med. british holiday makers think the Med is so clean as the water is clear - they don't seem to understand that our waters are so murky because of all the silt and sand churned up. The Med is an open sewer compared to our waters.

[greenkeg]

Originally Posted by DGR

Agree, eventually, but not nice if it happens to be you swimming along (or boogy boarding) when a dog poo gets in your way...(to the soundtrack of Jaws... ...). The nasty coliforms etc will still be present as well.



I'm not being silly. Water companies are spending fortunes in the UK upgrading sewage systems to reduce contaminant levels - why bother if 'everytime it rains' etc etc.?

FYI - if your local beach is assessed as being MCS standard, or Blue Flag, I believe that a 'Richard III' floating past would count as a fail.

It's quite simple really - if you have a dog, and walk it on the beach, pick it up like anywhere else, and stick in it a poo bin.

what about the donkey crap (donkey rides)should the owners bag that? sandy bay porthcawl
full of it in the summer

[Limey Linda]

Originally Posted by codprawn

At one stage 1,000 litres of raw sewage from up to 800,000 homes in the Scottish capital were being pumped out every second."

Oh dear, that is a different matter because it was Scots poo. Terrible stuff.

[codprawn]

Originally Posted by Limey Linda

Oh dear, that is a different matter because it was Scots poo. Terrible stuff.

It's all that Haggis!!!

[codprawn]

Originally Posted by greenkeg

what about the donkey crap (donkey rides)should the owners bag that? sandy bay porthcawl
full of it in the summer

The mess the Police horses leave is quite incredible as well.............

[Limey Linda]

Originally Posted by codprawn

The mess the Police horses leave is quite incredible as well.............

Go shovel it up and put it on your roses. We call it "road apples"

[DGR]

Originally Posted by codprawn

What happens to the fish crap then???

I never said it was a sterile environment - just don't add to it on the beach!!

Originally Posted by codprawn

And more to the point what about yachts with holding tanks or sea flush toilets - where do you think they get emptied???

Ever hear of Marpol? You are supposed to pump out where facilities are avaiable - where possible (obviously not everywhere).

Originally Posted by codprawn

Anyway I would far rather dog turds than human ones - and it still gets into the sea sometimes.

I'd rather see neither floating round my boat this summer.

Originally Posted by codprawn

"Engineers were fighting to stem the flow of millions of gallons of untreated sewage into the Firth of Forth near Edinburgh last night as a health alert was issued for ten miles of coastline..."

Exactly!! They are spending miilions to stop polluting our coastal waters!!

Originally Posted by codprawn

That would take quite a few dogs to compete.............

I'm not saying that - I'm just saying if that dog owners did their bit, the dogs wouldn't be banned off all these beaches - not that they should have their own sewage system!!

Originally Posted by greenkeg

what about the donkey crap (donkey rides)should the owners bag that? sandy bay porthcawl
full of it in the summer

They do have to remopve it on MCS and Blue Flag beaches. They do here anyway!!

ANYWAY - slightly lost the topic...

D...

[codprawn]

MARPOL? Nope and I suspect very few pleasure boaters in the UK think of it before they flush their bogs...............

[DGR]

Originally Posted by codprawn

MARPOL? Nope and I suspect very few pleasure boaters in the UK think of it before they flush their bogs...............

Just because it isn't widely known about doesn't mean it's not a good idea.

D...