Most beach clean ups are organised by green NGO\'s (MCS etc.), local residents and angling clubs (the NFSA has in the past organised them), although the turn out has usually been rubbish (if you\'ll pardon the pun!!!).
The most annoying thing is that when the rubbish is evaluated its usually (but not always) predominantly asigned to fishermens waste. This gets a lot of peoples backs up and they then call for angling to be banned without knowing the real interpretation of the facts. Yes, anglers do leave rubbish on beaches, peirs, jetties and harbour walls, Yes, it does look unsightly and as mentioned above can be dangerous to other users and animals, however, the phrase fishermen can be applied to many aspects of people who utilise the marine resources.
On my local beaches, the amount of ropes, plastic, gill nets, plastic dhans, pellets, lost and destroyed pots, fish boxes, you name it, its all there. This comes from the commercial fisherman, not the recreational fisherman, yet for some reason we get lumped together.
Yes I have worked at sea as a commercial fisherman, and yes I was as guilty as the rest, but I have changed my ways over the years, the problem is that the majority of \'fishermen\' haven\'t and the sea is still seen as an open sewer. I amazes me to see a vessel return to port with no debris on board, many imported frozen packs of pot bait are encased in plastic, and cardboard (not always I accept but in many cases they are (Mackerel, flatfish frames, whole flatfish etc.)). Where is the plastic wrapping? Don\'t these guys eat anything when they are at sea, because there is never any food wrapping or debris brought ashore. Rotten ropes and broken pots or trawls or damaged gill nets beyond repair are never brough back to port, in the majority of instances it is thrown over the side and forgotten. Sometime later its washed up on a beach, or snagged on a sub-sea feature. Out of sight out of mind is a poor way to deal with our refuse, even worse when we get blamed for the poor management of another sector.
The problem is that all the while we won\'t put our own house in order, we can hardly have a pop at anyone else. I bet if we asked all anglers what they did with their rubbish, line and old hooks, its odds on they would say they take it home and dispose of it properly, trouble is that someone is not being honest and until we change that mind set, then s hit e will stick.
Sorry to be a grouch but thats they way it is, we\'ve all walked past an angler or anglers on the beach or peir and seen the rubbish strewn around them, and I\'m sure we\'ve all thought about saying something, some will have even questioned them and asked them to take away their refuse. I bet most have recieved the usual derisory comments like \"go **** yoursen\" and \"whats it got to do with you, busy body\", and like most people haven\'t bothered to say anything in the future.
We have to keep banging this drum, make the idiots embarrassed, shame them into picking up and taking home their rubbish. Hopefully they\'ll get the message or take up golf.
Cheers
Doc
might of been on the old board so not available now, but it`s relevant to this thread.
