In the June edition of Yachting Monthly there is a superb article about rubbish.
The rubbish in question is the type which finds its way into the sea. Most comes off the land now, however, seafarers are responsible for a proportion of it all, which is very unfortunate indeed. I have been banging the drum about this for some little while – being an ex professional seafarer I fully realise what used to go on…
That is as it may be and times have changed, dramatically. Recently, a ‘ship’ was fined £311,000 by authorities in the Caribbean for discharging gash overboard. Ask yourself, do I throw anything overboard that contravenes current legislation, or in fact the moral code? If so, you could have been at the sharp end of that fine. Where would the family live once the home has been sold to pay up … then there are the costs… This is a serious matter.
A boat flying plastic in the Ray off Two Tree Island in Essex… Note how it is shredded. Those particles end up in the bellies of tiny creatures, then the next ones up the chain, then the next and so on, until it ends up in the fish you eat…
Plastic of various sorts are the biggest problem. This includes facial scrubs greatly used by many lady crew members: they contain micro pellets of plastic – recycled largely which is incredible. The products used to use ground nut kernels!
The YM article goes into the number of years that various plastics take to break down in the sea. A carrier bag takes around 20-50 years and at the worst, the estimate is 500-1000 years for drinks bottles. How many times have you seen one of these scooting across the water around you. Take a walk along a sea wall and wherever there is a ‘bay’ you’ll find a plethora of rubbish, sometimes knee deep. One such collecting point is tucked in past Cliffe Fort along the lower Thames.
This picture is from the River Orwell up in so called caring Suffolk. There were a line of these craft with varying degrees of bag remnants left flying. Yes, I know why its done, but it isn’t acceptable. Fines should be levied: it is an act of blatant environmental vandalism…
The other day I was leaving my boat in Smallgains Creek and was gob-smacked to find black oil floating along my recently applied anti-fouling. Eventually after searching for the source I spotted a couple of object leaching oil drifting towards the mooring. The, amazingly, an object was seen ejecting, as if by magic, from a covered over cockpit of a motor boat. Then a body was seen hands at work stripping something off. That object(s) also ended up overboard. I was incensed!
Finding a ‘hook’ I managed to capture four lots of floating contaminant. I know there must have been more, or actual oil was ditched, for most of the oiled surface had dispersed on the ebb. There were 3 or 4 ‘clumps’ of oil absorbent mops and a plastic glove. The other of a pair, sank? missed it? Don’t know…
I took the collection round to the culprit … I’ll not say who or what boat, however, suffice to say that I pointed out the error of the chap’s ways and that a heavy fine could be involved …
I put it in the hands of my club’s commodore.
The Island Yacht Club does a regular litter pick around its marshland borders, so we aren’t all like this chap, fortunately. Other clubs also do likewise and the Benfleet clubs do a walk down ‘their’ creek too, rubbish picking…
Rubbish. Bin it, take it ashore, home, anywhere, but not in the sea…