Trash Flotilla on South Side

[susan6868]

Over at Barefoot Caye near French Harbor this week. On our way out this morning we noticed a huge trash flotilla in the water, the most dense being in the area between the Caye and Cocoview.

It was so dense and so vast that we decided not to dive this afternoon. Really disgusting. Mostly shredded plastic but everything mixed in from food containers, to flip flops, to bottles and cans and even human waste. We're not talking a garbage truck full, more like a barge, or two.

Wondering if folks are having the same experience this week over on the west end or even on the north side.

We didn't experience this kind of thing last year but to be honest, if this has become a recurring problem rather than a freak incident we won't be returning next year.

It makes me sad, but right now the feeling of being totally grossed out is the predominant emotion.

Thoughts?

 

[MarineResearch]

Cruise ship in the area?

 

[susan6868]

Not to my knowledge but we've heard several explanations form the locals, including cruise ship dumping.

UPDATE: Massive Trash Attack Called “Flotilla” | Roatan New Times

Seems no one is really sure but it's so massive it's hard to believe it just floated in.

 

[scuba e]

I have heard that after big rains and wind that the trash runs out of the mainland rivers and winds and current push it to the south shore. I can buy that.
That said, last year our shuttle from the airport to CoCo View was delayed as a local school marched down the road sporting "Keep Roatan Clean" posters promoting no littering. Great idea but we could not help but laugh as we watched the do-gooders step over and around trash other than pick it up.
Even worse is the East side of Bonaire. Last year we followed some locals up the East end road and watched as their styrofoam lunch containers and drink cups were systematically launched out the windows and blown into the marshes. We stopped and picked up a few of them but the wind got most of them.
It is really amazing when you get home and see how clean things are. Hygiene picking up litter is not a state of income it's a a state of pride. My wife is Cuban. When she visits Cuba (she can legally) she tells me of her grandmother sweeping the dirt floors every morning. I feel for the locals who actually care. When discussing this with some of the DMs at CoCo View you can see the sadness in their eyes. How do you break habits that so many have accepted?
For our part, we try to come back with pockets full of debris when we see it. Luckily it is pretty seldom from our experiences.

 

[parrotheaddiver]

I have been going to Roatan since the 70's and have never seen one of these "flotillas" but then only going a couple of times a year I probably wouldn't.....hopefully this is a freak sighting but with the influx of cruise ships more people everywhere and a lot of people using the ocean as a dumping ground you may see this more often all over the caribbean

 

[RTBDiver]

I have seen this type of things for many years and while this may be a larger example than most it is nothing new. While it is easy to blame the cruise ships who no doubt do have some issues, ll one needs to do is look at the makeup of they trash and realize it is not from the ships. Along with sunbaked shoes, flip flops, very cheap plastic/rubber balls, plastic bottles of all sizes, styrafoam cooler bits and a large quantity of natural debris such as one would find in a pile after land was cleared.
All non resort beach areas get loaded up on a regular basis and most do not feel it is their duty to clean them up so they wait for the municipal to do it.

Just down the road from my place


The beach above whle not as clean anymore was a great example. When I first saw it the trash was many feet thick from the waters edge to about 30 0r so feet inland around the whole place and then it was bought and going to be one of the many grand hotels that never made it, 6 days a week a truck came in with about 8-10 guys and they burned mostly the natural stuff and carried out in bags the plastic and garbage, this went on for about two years before the investors ran out of money, Where do you think this trash goes? Much makes its way back to the sea, also, what happens when places such as this are scattered all arounf not just Rotan but all surrounding waterfront, the trash washes up, gets good and thick and then a storm comes in, waves crash and disturb these piles , winds shif and it gets carried somewhere else just as over time sands get carried around and erode or build beaches in different places.
I wonder how much of this stuff is still caught in curents from Haiti's disaster? Along with the currents running up the coast of South America towards Roatan there are also all those swirling around the Caribean/south atlantic that may contribute as well

 

[susan6868]

Well that explains a lot of it. Seems even the locals are a bit perplexed as there is actually human waste floating in the garbage mass as well which kind of makes the source seem more "local", and more disgusting.

We only know what's happening on the south side of the island. I would be curious to know what the conditions are over on the west end.

 

[Mike]

Cruise ship in the area?

Get serious this isn't 1969 anymore.

The order of probability of trash dumping is geometrically higher that it's the result of a local then anything else.

This stuff if going on on the shores of every every island in the ocean thanks to the amount of trash floating around in the oceans that currents gather up and push along until it hits a land mass.

 

[MarineResearch]

Get serious this isn't 1969 anymore.

The order of probability of trash dumping is geometrically higher that it's the result of a local then anything else.

This stuff if going on on the shores of every every island in the ocean thanks to the amount of trash floating around in the oceans that currents gather up and push along until it hits a land mass.

Well, it was still a problem in the Caribbean as recently as this article in 2009.

Caribbean cruise ships dump garbage at sea

 

[RTBDiver]

Well, it was still a problem in the Caribbean as recently as this article in 2009.

Caribbean cruise ships dump garbage at sea

Yes, and while it would be great if nothing was dumped you will notice the original poster was not talking about

" ground-up glass, rags and cardboard packaging"

as your article mentions, not sure about the rags bug the carboard would go away pretty quick and heck, a lot of people put ground up glass on the bottoms of their fishtanks .