I am not an overly fastidious person. I think every child should have their daily ration of dirt and I don't obsess over how clean my kitchen has to be. But I wash my hands after pooping. I don't pump over in
anchorages.
Fish and seal poop, or for that matter dog poop, is different from a
health point of view from human poop. Many chronic diseases are very specie specific. They are transmitted only between
animals of the same specie. Sometimes there are intermediary species in a
food chain, like malaria with mosquitoes and people. But you are unlikely to catch a bad disease from whale poop. I have dove on many a reef and watched the fish poop directly in front of me. That does not gross me out.
But humans carry specific critters, many of which are discharged in their feces. Some of the critters, bacteria primarily, are not only safe but they are required for
health. And even within a genus of bacteria, like E. coli, some species are deadly to humans if ingested, while healthy individuals have many E. coli in their guts who help digest
food. Many third world epidemics are promoted by lack of sanitary facilities. The aftermath of the earthquake in
Haiti a few years ago caused enormous physical damage, including killing/maiming people. But the real problem was the lack of good water and sanitary conditions because the infrastructure was not longer there or working to provide clean water and pooping facilities. People have to poop close to their homes, on the ground. Then it gets in the water. Then it kills people. Many people continue to die from that. It doesn't kill the
dogs and cats, but it does kill other people.
I do not care to swim where other cruisers throw their untreated poop
overboard, whether in chunks or via macerators. And people don't use direct macerators, they are almost always only used to pump out holding tanks. And the people who are too
cheap or whatever to have holding tanks are not the ones who will turn on a macerator while they take a dump that goes direct overboard.
Human waste is the problem. It is the reason it is illegal to pump out close to shore. Not getting caught does not make it right. And the
cruise ships are starting to get caught, at least on the Pacific coast, even off of
Mexico. They are trying to be
cheap too. Any one I catch in an anchorage will get shamed to the utmost, and not just by me. Word of this crap is passed along real time between cruisers. Not right, not healthy, not legal, not welcome.
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