How to handle trash?

[TMHeimer]

I generally don't touch trash. But then I think in 12 years of Nova Scotia diving I may have seen 3 tires, a bucket or two and 3-4 pieces of footwear. Diving in the NY area differs, and they can remove all their own trash, which is plentiful. I have taken several "stubby" beer bottles used in the '80s however as souvenirs diving here in NS.
There is less trash on my FL panhandle dives than around NY, but again, that's their problem.
Two weeks ago I did pick up a pair of grubby looking sunglasses in Bayville, Long Island. Cleaned them up and turns out they were perfect Kate Spade shades and sell new for $200US (one on the internet for $129). My wife was happy I took that trash.
Oh, in NS I have seen over a dozen golf balls apparently hit into the ocean. Now who would do that in this day and age? In fact our LDS has a Treasure Hunt yearly with 200 numbered golf balls that 100+ divers try to find (that's how I won my SPLIT FINS....). I assume some of the balls do "escape".
I will say that I pick up stuff I can use--scuba gear, lures, etc. To answer the question, I put this stuff in my shell collecting bag which I always carry. Last year I found a brand new mask/snorkel--into the bag.

 

[2airishuman]

1) How do you react to stuff like that underwater? Tin cans, broken glass bottles, metal sheets, ...

Depends. If circumstances permit me to remove it and dispose of it without compromising the other objectives of my dive, I will do that.

2) If you take it out, what do you do with it? Everything in the incinerables/landfill, or can such glass and plastic still be recycled?

I put aluminum cans in the recycle stream and everything else in the garbage.

4) When to know if it should be taken out or not, eg there's mussels growing in/on a metal barrel?

Trash is usually more of an eyesore than a problem to the biosphere. Judgement call, err on the side of leaving things that have become habitat for something

5) I know glass could be left in the water as it "doesn't cause harm" when it's deep enough, but most glass is in the shallow ends where kids (and myself) sometimes walk around. Even when it's deep, it feels wrong to leave it there, is that just me?

I pick up some trash from time to time but will not allow trash collection to take over my diving life.

 

[Bob DBF]

I'll second @2airishuman that I don't change a dive plan to pick up trash. I do however just kick around exploring, and at that point I do pick up items I want as well as plastic, especially monofilament fishing line. I just put it in the yellow gamebag I usually carry when on these outings.

In addition to plastic, I have removed glass, cans, and sharp objects from a beach used by bathers, but don't usually bother otherwise or when deeper. Depends on where I go how much trash is on the bottom, and I usually avoid crowds.

I have found all manner of dive gear, fishing gear, sunglasses, anchors, and so on. What I don't use or dispose of, goes on Craigslist, and helps a little to finance my diving.

Whatever you do helps, hope you find some treasures as well as trash.


Bob

 

[boulderjohn]

A lot of what we see as "junk", however, isn't dangerous to the wildlife and can actually form a habitat. One of the dive sites I go to often has some old tires in it. They were put there on purpose to aid in navigation for divers but if you look inside the tires there are all kinds of crabs, shimp, gobies etc. living in them.

I was told this quite emphatically years ago. In many and perhaps most cases, it takes very little time for some trash to become part of the ecosystem. You have to be very judicious about pulling that ecosystem apart. Yes, definitely remove that which can bring harm, but be very careful about disrupting the happy homes of a variety of organisms.

 

[Kharon]

1) How do you react to stuff like that underwater? Tin cans, broken glass bottles, metal sheets, ...

My club does a service day annually at a local lake (not always the same one). We do a couple of dives to "clean the lake". We generally pull between 2000 and 2500 pounds of trash over 2 dives by 12-14 people. On cleaner lakes not so much.

Personally, diving up here ( cold, poor vis, mud and few fish) I only dive to practice skills that I'm still having trouble with (finning backward) and to pick up trash. I always carry a mesh bag or two. I usually drag the crap home and seperate it into m garbage & recycle cans.

After a severe infection from a cut lifting milfoil mats I now use a stainless fileting glove on my right hand to pick things up. Thinking about gettting one for my left hand as well.

 

[Patoux01]

I have to say, I'm not sure if the "leave if as habitat" idea is really founded. On the one hand, sure, habitat. On the other, it doesn't belong there (and pollutes), and it feels to me that if that's the only habitat the animals can find, it means the animals don't belong there either.


@2airishuman "I pick up some trash from time to time but will not allow trash collection to take over my diving life.", I have to say, I've done 2 dives where I was looking for fish, and they were boring (but I'll admit, they were pretty bad dives, no fish to be found). I find it fun to see how much I can get in a given time. Also makes me feel like my dives aren't just "wasting time underwater".


Thanks for the tip on fileting gloves, do they make you clumsy? I feel like my drygloves make me really clumsy already, so avoiding a glove on top of it would be cool...

 

[snowdog61]

Picking up trash is usually limited to new and fairly fresh plastics - especially 6-pack rings, bags, and bottles. Most of the other things are left as they seem to get quickly covered with biomatter and become homes. Tires seem to be a great attractant to octos and arrow crabs. I'll collect monofiliment and braid on occasion if entanglement won't be an issue but mostly I just cut it into smaller sections. While in the Keys, I did follow one piece of braid which lead to a $180 rod and spin reel combo that cleaned up perfect. Rod was a pro model endorsed by a guy I went to HS with back in Cocoa Beach who went on to have his own fishing show - small world

 

[boulderjohn]

Last autumn I was sitting in a boat off the coast of Nusa Lembongan, Bali, waiting through a surface interval. One of the boat's divemasters and I leaned over the rail to pick some floating plastic debris out of the water. With just what we could reach during the relative few minutes we did this, we picked up about two bushels of trash. This was household waste, including things like bags of commercial frozen food. It would be nice to think we made a difference, but when we got in the water to do the dive, it was like entering through a landfill. As we descended, there were plastic bags of different kinds and colors suspended in the water all around us. When we got back into the boat and headed for home, it was easy to see the ocean current--it was a trail of garbage, like the yellow brick road.

Later on our trip, we went north to the Tulamben area, where the water was much cleaner. Even so, on about a dozen times in our week of diving there, the boat engine stopped and had to be restarted because it was fouled with garbage.

 

[Patoux01]

It would be nice to think we made a difference

The Story of the Hummingbird

One day a terrible fire broke out in a forest - a huge woodlands was suddenly engulfed by a raging wild fire. Frightened, all the animals fled their homes and ran out of the forest. As they came to the edge of a stream they stopped to watch the fire and they were feeling very discouraged and powerless. They were all bemoaning the destruction of their homes. Every one of them thought there was nothing they could do about the fire, except for one little hummingbird.
This particular hummingbird decided it would do something. It swooped into the stream and picked up a few drops of water and went into the forest and put them on the fire. Then it went back to the stream and did it again, and it kept going back, again and again and again. All the other animals watched in disbelief; some tried to discourage the hummingbird with comments like, "Don't bother, it is too much, you are too little, your wings will burn, your beak is too tiny, it’s only a drop, you can't put out this fire."
And as the animals stood around disparaging the little bird’s efforts, the bird noticed how hopeless and forlorn they looked. Then one of the animals shouted out and challenged the hummingbird in a mocking voice, "What do you think you are doing?" And the hummingbird, without wasting time or losing a beat, looked back and said, "I am doing what I can."

 

[boulderjohn]

And the hummingbird, without wasting time or losing a beat, looked back and said, "I am doing what I can."

You did not finish the story. Did the hummingbird put the fire out? I am guessing he didn't. If not, what did he accomplish?

I have a parable of my own, a story I told some years ago when speaking at a Phi Delta Kappa (an education service organization) conference. Two of the key concepts of this organization are service and leadership.

I told about a wildebeest herd, grazing on the plains of Africa. They realized a pride of lions was coming through the tall grass to them. As usual, the herd began to bolt in terror, intending to return to gentle grazing the second the lions nailed one of their slowest members and began to feast on the carcass. One of the wildebeest was able to convince his neighbors that they were making a mistake--they were running in the wrong direction. They all turned and ran directly at the lions instead of away from them. The lions came to a screeching halt as that portion of herd came thundering at them. The lions turned and ran in terror themselves. Soon that herd was known as the Wildebeests from Hell, and no lion dared approach them.

The wildebeests who attacked the lions showed the commitment to service that saved the herd. The one who talked them into turning showed the leadership it takes to bring about such service.

The hummingbird was doing what it could, but its efforts were ineffectual. They were also misguided. It should have devoted its efforts instead to trying to bring about the large scale change in the behavior of the others that would have solved the problem. Maybe he would have failed at that as well, but at least those efforts had some chance, whereas his hummingbird spits had no chance whatsoever.

Yes, we did what we could by pulling out that miniscule fraction of the trash in the Bali waters, but those efforts were ineffectual and meaningless. It is much better if all who are concerned were to do what they can to make the problem known and seek a solution. In Bali there is no effective means of discarding trash, so garbage trucks dump it in the sea. The solution is not for individuals to pull plastic bags from the sea; the solution is for individuals to promote actions to see to it that garbage trucks stop putting it there.