In a marina, what food items can / cant be thrown overboard

[sail4evr]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

A marina is typically an enclosed and restricted waterway. It also likely has a high density of boaters. The biodiversity within is likely less, or certainly different, than surrounding open waters. As such, it should likely be treated differently than open waters.

As I say, it really shouldn’t be hard to know whether it is appropriate to heave your garbage over the side. If it’s an area of good flow/large volume, like when offshore, then it’s likely better environmentally to dump organics and biodegradable over the side. Otherwise, a landfill is likely the better option.

Even with the plastic bags? I know we don't see landfills, so plastic bags... out of site out of mind? Does that make it better? Not to me

[sailorboy1]

just don't throw beer overboard

it really pisses off and depresses the boat scum when they see that

[kas_1611]

Originally Posted by senormechanico

At home, we compost banana peels along with all organic stuff from the kitchen. They are gone in a month or two.

Decades??? REALLY ??????

In a proper compost heap or composter then yes a few weeks or a month but lying on the seabed, side of the road, mountain path they can take years to rot. Recent litter pick up on the path to Ben Nevis discovered a banana skin with a date stamp still visible that indicated it was 14 years old and barely degraded at all.

[David Mathis]

Great question. Perhaps you should reconsider boating. You could sell the boat and get a pool where you can have parties and throw your pizza crusts, wing and steak bones, and salad remnants in the water along with beer bottles and soda cans.
MARPOL law prohibits throwing any food wastes into the water out to the three mile limit then it has to be ground before discharge. Read MARPOL for a more detailed description. A violation is a federal crime and the act of discharging any waste into the water is a crime under state law.

[WindwardPrinces]

Originally Posted by loneranger2

Obviously nothing but.. my dog alway leaves a few pieces of kibble in his bowl, or around the deck. I keep feeling that fish would eat this right up, and would be fine for the environment, and better for the fish (organic brand of course). However, it does look bad, and I suppose would be against marina rules. I'm talking about a few pea size nuggets.... what do other pet owners do about this?

Feed him less kibble?

Seriously, put it in the garbage and dispose of it properly, like all the rest of your waste.

[Robert Jansen]

There's an old joke about a kid whose Dad taught him to swim by rowing out into the middle of the lake and throwing him overboard. When a friend of his asked him about the distance of the swim back to shore, he replied that swimming back to shore was the easy part. The hard part was getting out of the sack.

[loneranger2]

I guess that was the obvious answer: so will do. I did feel it worth asking. In the meantime I will be working with my dog to never leave a kibble uneaten.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by sail4evr

Even with the plastic bags? I know we don't see landfills, so plastic bags... out of site out of mind? Does that make it better? Not to me

I’m unclear how your comments have anything to do with mine. You seemed to have missed the entire point.

Sometimes it is better to toss over the side, sometimes it is better to landfill. In the case of an enclosed body of water with little flow and with high human density, it’s likely a bad idea to toss garbage over the side. In an area with good flow/volume and few people, tossing is probably better.

Garbage that arrives at modern landfills do not remain in plastic bags. Landfill are not just holes in the ground. Here’s a link to show how long typically materials take to break down in modern landfills:

https://www.saveonenergy.com/material-decomposition/

[CaptWho]

Originally Posted by Woodland Hills

What about running the same scraps through the garbage disposal? Or how about running the dishwasher or clothes washer? Even showering leaves a trail of suds........

There are fish cleaning stations in nearly every marina we have been to in Florida and that all gets thrown overboard. How is it different if it’s cooked and sauced?

Personally, I've never seen a garbage disposal on a boat, although I like the idea. Even if I had one, I still wouldn't use it in a marina.

[senormechanico]

Originally Posted by David Mathis

Great question. Perhaps you should reconsider boating. You could sell the boat and get a pool where you can have parties and throw your pizza crusts, wing and steak bones, and salad remnants in the water along with beer bottles and soda cans.
MARPOL law prohibits throwing any food wastes into the water out to the three mile limit then it has to be ground before discharge. Read MARPOL for a more detailed description. A violation is a federal crime and the act of discharging any waste into the water is a crime under state law.

Even into your own pool?

[LeGe]

Originally Posted by Woodland Hills

What about running the same scraps through the garbage disposal? Or how about running the dishwasher or clothes washer? Even showering leaves a trail of suds........

There are fish cleaning stations in nearly every marina we have been to in Florida and that all gets thrown overboard. How is it different if it’s cooked and sauced?

EXACTLY!!!! Thank you Jesus for someone with a backbone...

I'm so sick to hear of this or that regulation that steals away our freedom as a reason to do or not to do something. When did we become mindless robots that allow the little grey man in his dead end job at The Department of Whatever to spread his miserable life to all of us in the name of "the environment" or even worse, "the children"...

Throwing food scraps into the water where they will be eaten in a few hours cannot possibly be worse for the environment than cleaning fish into the marina. And while we're talking about things that are bad for the environment, what about the tons and tons of bird poop that all the waterfowl roosting in any tree close to the water dumps? I know it's also eaten eventually but is it really better than throwing some crumbs and scraps into the water. Nobody is saying you should dump a dumpster worth of restaurant trash into the water but is it really so bad to think about this in reasonable terms?

[LeGe]

Originally Posted by rbk

or are all the liveaboards there just lazy?

Not trying to pick on you but your initial post about the uhhgg...wildlife...and the inconveniences they bring was just slightly irritating. I cant stand the bird sh*t and otter sh*t as much as the next person when I step in it, or its on my boat but it comes withe package. Maybe if people weren't so busy decimating our fish stocks the wildlife wouldn't have to scavenge for table scraps in our harbors.

Good point.

Playing devil's advocate here but:

Why is it that humans (who only eat seafood some of the time) get blamed for the dwindling seafood stocks and not the explosion of seal numbers (who only eat seafood) since we stopped making fur jackets from them?

[LeGe]

Originally Posted by David Mathis

Great question. Perhaps you should reconsider boating. You could sell the boat and get a pool where you can have parties and throw your pizza crusts, wing and steak bones, and salad remnants in the water along with beer bottles and soda cans.
MARPOL law prohibits throwing any food wastes into the water out to the three mile limit then it has to be ground before discharge. Read MARPOL for a more detailed description. A violation is a federal crime and the act of discharging any waste into the water is a crime under state law.

You're really serious about this?

You must be such a fun person to be around....

[sailorboy1]

I heard a story of too many people in a marina pouring bacon grease down the sink drain and washing too many plates that had bacon grease on them.

Turns out fish are a little like people and once you have had BACON, well nothing else is as good. The fish started holding out for the morning breakfast bacon and when the season ended and people left the marina and stopped the bacon flow; ................................ the fish died of starvation!

[senormechanico]

I chase these guys off my boat all the time. Their crap is awful to clean off.
I always thought they looked kid of regal and all, but when I found out what they eat, I'm even more disgusted by them.
I always thought they ate frogs and small fish. Boy was I wrong !


Do a youtube search for what they eat after you watch this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR6VyUmuVSo