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

[cj88]

FYI, if the country is a signatory to MARPOL then there are conditions on food waste discharge irrespective of any additional rules a marina may or may not impose.

Definition of harmful substances
The following substances are harmful substances for the purposes of the definition
of the term harmful substances in section 2(1) of the Act:

Garbage, in relation to a ship or an offshore installation, means—
(a) all kinds of food waste, domestic waste, operational waste, plastic, cargo
residue, incinerator ash, cooking oil, fishing gear, and any animal carcass
generated during the normal operation of the ship or offshore installation
and liable to be disposed of continuously or periodically; but
(b) does not include—
(ii) fresh fish or parts of fresh fish generated as a result of fishing activity
undertaken during a voyage, or as a result of aquaculture activity
that involves the transport of fish (including shellfish) for
placement in an aquaculture facility and the transport of harvested
fish (including shellfish) from such facilities to shore for processing

Food waste means any spoiled or unspoiled food substance, and includes any
fruit, vegetable, dairy product, poultry, meat product, and food scraps generated
on board a ship or an offshore installation

13A Exceptions to prohibition on discharge of garbage

(e) food waste, if the discharge occurs—
(i) while the ship is en route; and
(ii) at least 5 500 metres (3 nautical miles) seaward of the inner limits
of the territorial sea; and
(iii) at least 500 metres (0.27 nautical miles) from any offshore installation;
and
(iv) after the food waste has been ground or reduced to a particle size
no greater than 25 millimetres (1 inch);

[Kokanee]

and people wonder why there is a problem with algae blooms....

[RaymondR]

I was anchored in a tidal river during the summer months and every time I emptied the sink after washing the dishes the scavenger catfish went crazy. Pondering upon this I came up with the following questions:

Since the catfish eat the food scraps in the dish water which contains a fair bit of dish
washing detergent, do catfish have awfully clean bowels.

Since they have dammed all the rivers on this coast thereby preventing the regular
flushes of carbon based plant detritus which used to occur after every big rain, is the
marine environment now suffering a carbon deficiency at the bottom of the food chain
and would we assist remedying this by disposing of more biological waste overboard?

[Mike OReilly]

In a marina with high flow, good volume, sufficient biota, and small boater density, then dumping over the side may be reasonable. In areas of low or restricted flow, with small confined waters, and/or with high boater density, dumping over the side is likely unreasonable.

In my experience most marinas fall into the latter category, but clearly there are some which better fit the former. You’d think common sense and basic decency would provide an easy answer to this query.

[zboss]

Originally Posted by Kokanee

and people wonder why there is a problem with algae blooms....

Dude... it takes a lot more than food scraps to cause algal blooms. The main culprit is runoff from golf courses and houses fertilizing their lawns and of course the healthy doses of sewer overflows that Florida communities regularly pump out.

We don’t throw anything in the water in marinas.

[rbk]

X2 for common sense. It’s funny how some are horrified at dumping some vegetables in the water but don’t bat an eye at discharging dishwater, laundry shower water etc, I can only guess at what percentage of boaters doing that are using phosphates/SL sulphates and a host of other toxic chemicals in their soaps shampoos and conditioners and dumping them into the water, or bagging in plastic and taking up space in landfills. Busy harbor/anchorage...save it for a few days and dump underway or take it out with the dingy. As for seals, otters, sea lions and birds being drawn in and inconveniencing people...it was their home first, maybe we should just eradicate them all.

[Cool Hand Luke]

Originally Posted by billknny

Our rule is, if somebody else will see it before it dissolves, we keep it onboard until we can dispose of it appropriately. That applies at anchor as well as in a marina, or even underway. Now, that might mean tossing it overboard offshore, but we would NEVER intentionally impose our trash on somebody else. That's the golden rule.

Best rule for anything biodegradable. I'm all for throwing EVERYTHING biodegradable (food scraps; veggie scraps; bones; etc.) overboard but only if it sinks before it affects someone.

[cj88]

Just because it is biodegradable doesn't mean it should be disposed of in the ocean. It is not an oxygen-rich environment that aids rapid decomposing. The nutrients released can impact the biological balance which leads to algal blooms, etc. and it can also upset the balance of the food chain. But we're a lazy species where convenience and comfort matter more. So let's keep trashing the planet instead, so long as we think what we do doesn't make a difference or if we simply just don't care enough.

[PatMc57]

Now..Can I bury my Ex overboard in the marina?......Only in Florida...

[rbk]

Originally Posted by cj88

Just because it is biodegradable doesn't mean it should be disposed of in the ocean. It is not an oxygen-rich environment that aids rapid decomposing. The nutrients released can impact the biological balance which leads to algal blooms, etc. and it can also upset the balance of the food chain. But we're a lazy species where convenience and comfort matter more. So let's keep trashing the planet instead, so long as we think what we do doesn't make a difference or if we simply just don't care enough.

So it’s the table scraps that are doing it and not the 200,000,000 metric tons of fertilizers that people use in agriculture every year. Glad that got cleared up.

[Singularity]

Originally Posted by rbk

X2 for common sense. It’s funny how some are horrified at dumping some vegetables in the water but don’t bat an eye at discharging dishwater, laundry shower water etc, I can only guess at what percentage of boaters doing that are using phosphates/SL sulphates and a host of other toxic chemicals in their soaps shampoos and conditioners and dumping them into the water, or bagging in plastic and taking up space in landfills...

Very well said. As otherwise stated upthread, local circumstances should dictate appropriateness of putting table scraps in the water (withstanding the laws that, when taken cumulatively, outlaw most everything).

I do wonder, though, how some foods might effect fish (particularly bananas with all the potassium).

[leftbrainstuff]

Nothing in a marina. Trash goes in the bin not in the water.

Use a biodegradable washing up liquid.

[redhead]

Originally Posted by rbk

X2 for common sense. It’s funny how some are horrified at dumping some vegetables in the water but don’t bat an eye at discharging dishwater, laundry shower water etc, I can only guess at what percentage of boaters doing that are using phosphates/SL sulphates and a host of other toxic chemicals in their soaps shampoos and conditioners and dumping them into the water, or bagging in plastic and taking up space in landfills. Busy harbor/anchorage...save it for a few days and dump underway or take it out with the dingy. As for seals, otters, sea lions and birds being drawn in and inconveniencing people...it was their home first, maybe we should just eradicate them all.

OK I'll take that. They were here first. I'm scratching my head trying to follow your logic that from what I posted to "eradicate them all". Never said that, never want that. But as someone who's lived aboard for 5 years now I'm stating my preference for a natural balance. If the seals and gulls find food and want to come in here, that's the way it's supposed to be. If we liveaboard (all 70 of us here) all threw our vegetable matter overboard, that would by definition upset the natural way of things.

Overdramatization of other's opinions doesn't really accomplish anything

[Singularity]

Originally Posted by redhead

... If we liveaboard (all 70 of us here) all threw our vegetable matter overboard, that would by definition upset the natural way of things...

What is the natural way of things?
-A shoreline with no humans/boats?
-A shoreline with some humans?
-A shoreline with some humans and some boats?
-A shoreline with many humans, many boats, and few birds/seals?
-A shoreline with many humans, many boats, table scraps in the water with more birds/seals?

Why not just admit that some things we find icky, displeasurable in the short-term may not be per se harmful in the long run? When I read the OP's post the first thing I thought was "alligators and birds." But from a larger-scale and longer-term sustainability standpoint, it makes a heck of a lot of sense to put scraps in the water...assuming that the marina is not in a backwater or something. This may offend the OCD neat-freaks, but frankly sometimes the OCD neat-freak practices cause much worse problems than the hypothetical threats that the neat freak is trying to deal with in the first place.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Singularity

What is the natural way of things? …

Humans are as natural as any other critter on this planet. And just like any other critter, we can and do foul our own nests. This is a colloquial way of saying all animals (indeed all life) can throw the existing ecosystem out of balance. This is what we do when we exceed an ecoystem’s capacity to process our various effluents (pollution).

Most marinas I’ve spent time in are relatively confined and small spaces. They tend to have limited flow and limit exposure to the effects of wind, wave and tides (kinda the whole point of a marina). They have limited capacity to sustain a complex ecosystem. In these situations it’s not hard to see how the human effluent from even a relatively few boaters could overwhelm the local ecosystem.

As for the icky factor, yes, it is real. Our aesthetic senses have their foundation in that sense of natural balance. Seeing a large amount of organic or inorganic pollution floating around in a confined space is a good indication of a system out of balance. So our “ick” reaction is clearly an evolutionary development.

This why I say the right answer is situational. In some circumstances it would be better to toss over the side. In others, it would be detrimental.

And surely most of us know the difference.