Garbage and the Litter Bugs

[scootermcfly]

I'm a relatively new diver (cert in early June) and I have noticed that there seems to be a fair amount of garbage at certain sites where there is easy public access. Now, I can understand if something accidentally blows into the water if I am at the beach, but what I don't understand is when people intentionally throw stuff over the side of their boat.

I was on a dive yesterday with my oldest teenager and we were coming back up to the shore next to some floating docks about 30 feet away where there was a boat full of people preparing to depart for the day. I watched as one of the teens on the boat ate a piece of candy and then threw the wrapper overboard, and the parents/adults didn’t say a thing. Luckily, breeze was blowing towards us and I was able to retrieve the wrapper since it was still floating. Is it me, or are people really that inconsiderate these days? I was going to return the garbage to them, but they had left by the time that I hit the shore.

Now, on most dives, I have become a fan of trying to pick up at least one thing on my way back to shore, just to try to clean up the area a little bit. Even my family has figured that if they just got one piece, whether it be a beer can, Styrofoam cup, anything small and easy to carry, it will make the dive site that much more appealing to people after us. Most of the sites here in upstate NY that I frequent are beach access, so it makes it easier for carrying out some garbage.

So, what I would like to know is what everyone else does for garbage that they find and any interesting stories that are out there. I am not an environmental activist or anything, just trying to keep the local underwater sites looking good for fellow divers.

Scooter McFly

[FishFood]

That crap steams me.

A local(ish) spring I go to is full of rednecks in the summer. You can tell where they fish, because there will be PILES of beer cans on the bottom. PILES!!! How dumb do you have to be?

Another place I go to, there's a 12ft long piece of rolled up carpet. And this is in the ocean. HOw does that happen??

Maybe we should all carry a spear gun with us...

[Texas Girl]

If we find trash while diving we will always try and pick it up. We do the same thing at a park or the beach, pick up just a little.

[mwhities]

When I do shore dives, I most usually always carry a goodie bag with me. I did a dive at Pensacola Beach Pier (the old one) and I filled up a bag in no time. Almost a 12 pack of beer cans, a few broken sun glasses and several different bags of sort.

Michael

[BuzzGA]

I have a mesh bag in the pocket of my BCD and use that to hold all the trash I find on the bottom. I know that bringing back a couple of beer cans may not clean the whole site up but I figure it helps. The other thing I hate are those big balls of fishing line...

[mwhities]

Originally Posted by BuzzGA

I have a mesh bag in the pocket of my BCD and use that to hold all the trash I find on the bottom. I know that bringing back a couple of beer cans may not clean the whole site up but I figure it helps. The other thing I hate are those big balls of fishing line...

Any little bit does help. "Your vote counts!" Same idea. Be extra careful with the fishing line.

Michael

[Jaymeany]

If everyone grabs a few things each time they are down it not only cleans the area but brings awareness to people on your exit. If they see you with a bag of garbage they might not let that can fly away. out of sight out of mind. They see you pull a full bag and they realize it adds up down there. Maybe you will influence other divers too. Just don't put it in a BC pocket and forget about it!

[scootermcfly]

It's great to hear that there are people that do bring stuff back with them if they can, and every little bit does help. I know that I don't want to dive among a lot of garbage any more than any other diver.

And as for the fishing line, that is always a challenge. I found a ball of that once and unzippered my wetsuit and stuck it in there for the remainder of the dive instead of trying to keep track of it in my goodie bag.

Scooter McFly

[gtjason2000]

i usually fill up my roll down bag in my brigade with a couple things. I really should take a larger grab bag because I usually can only grab one plastic bottle. The wife and I plan to go to trashfest in new braunfels and clean up the comal where all the tubers dump their beer cans.

[JahJahwarrior]

Some guys were complaining that they don't like to div eone local free spring because it's got lots of garbage.....

Ever hear of the difference between a thermometer and a thermostat? Thermoeter tells what the temperature is, thermostat can change it. Lets be thermostats!

So I went there with a buddy just to haul out trash. We brought out about 20 pounds of beer cans, bottles, sunglasses, etc. Also, about 100 pounds of cinderblocks and bricks.


Granted, we accidentily started removing some 5 gallon buckets filled with conrete before realizing they were there to hold down a sunked platform....one or two had brken free so we assumed they were all trash and removed another one before we realized they were tied to the platform with very short ropes....then we realized what was up and felt stupid. You should have seen the hand signals!