NPR diving related story

[seaseadee]

Don’t know where this belongs so here goes...

Heard this on NPR yesterday:
https://www.npr.org/686257550

 

[Scared Silly]

I read this article and heard the interview. The golf courses are not going to be happy with this discovery as they are probably now going to be required to have nets to prevent balls going into the ocean or do very regular clean up dives.

 

[diversteve]

There must be thousands off the Bay Course at Kapalua on Maui - there's one hole where the green is across a small bay from the tee. If it's windy you hit out towards the ocean and let the wind push your ball back.

Plus several holes have the ocean just off the left or right of several fairways. I hit the greens so didn't add to the problem.

It's a problem in SoCal also - Palos Verdes Dive Site; Golf Ball Reef
It looks like several animals are hoarding them.

i'm almost positive one activity decades ago on our Carnival Bahamas cruise was hitting balls off the back deck while crossing over. And skeet shooting which is hard on a pitching ship - I saw a lot of unbroken clays hit the water - and the lead shot which could be easily ingested. I'm sure it's all still there, I doubt Carnival made any cleanup attempts in deep open water - not that they could really.

 

[WeRtheOcean]

i'm almost positive one activity decades ago on our Carnival Bahamas cruise was hitting balls off the back deck while crossing over. And skeet shooting which is hard on a pitching ship - I saw a lot of unbroken clays hit the water - and the lead shot which could be easily ingested. I'm sure it's all still there, I doubt Carnival made any cleanup attempts in deep open water - not that they could really.

Out of sight, out of mind. People think that because they can't see the bottom of the ocean, whatever they threw there is "gone." It isn't. I wonder how the trash situation on the seafloor compares to the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" -- which we only know about because it floats where people can see it.