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

[Sojourner]

Coffee grounds from the French press, mainly cause there's no good way to get them out other than swirl and dump.... But that's all.

[Singularity]

Originally Posted by billknny

Seriously? What kind of person would ask this question?

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

I have to agree here! Simple common sense should answer this query prior to posing it in a public forum.

Jim

What's more absurd: asking a sincere question about a practice that might be more environmentally friendly than contributing to a landfill and expecting to be treated fairly, or shaming/denigrating a person asking such a question?

[Bruce K]

My house is built over the water, I always throw chicken carcasses, bones etc into the water, they don't last 10 seconds, devoured by about 100 Bream fighting over the bones!!!!!

[IslandHopper]

Originally Posted by Bruce K

My house is built over the water, I always throw chicken carcasses, bones etc into the water, they don't last 10 seconds, devoured by about 100 Bream fighting over the bones!!!!!

Exactly, everywhere i look around the marina here people have fishing lines in pulling them.....i don't fish here but i do feed them, some of them i hand feed.....

[zeehag]

I have beautiful big fishies under my boat....aside from the million and a half catfish, there are 4 pargo of 3 ft length, many smaller babies, something that looks like pompano but is not, puffer fish of 3 varietals, and many jack fish and other beauties. yes i feed em. cat food-- canned and dry, meat that bubba hasnot finished, my scraps, they willnot eat banana peels. crabbies eat the bones and chunks of meat the fishies donot eat... and the iguanas eat the fruit bits. so. why waste food by putting it into the burn trash bin when the smoke is best not made.
landfill here is holding tank effluent and other nastiness..

[NYSail]

Originally Posted by thinwater

A great many marinas will curse you for that, because it adds to shoaling. Eventually, the slips become more shallow. It's a no-no.

We are never at our slip to drop them over but just saying that would be the only thing I would view acceptable. I have 25 feet below me at low tide in my slip so would take a bunch to come close to shoal material.....

[zeehag]

Quote:
Originally Posted by thinwater View Post
A great many marinas will curse you for that, because it adds to shoaling. Eventually, the slips become more shallow. It's a no-no.

i have never heard this one;.... crabs and fish eat all i dump over..
shoaling happens when currents bring muck and dirt and sand to where dredges are needed.... food is not static not constant--it vanishes into the innards of sea life.

[sailorboy1]

gee people, take a chill pill

just don't toss in a trash can full at once

[redhead]

My question, I guess, would be if you have say 150 liveaboards and they all did it 3X a day, would that affect the water quality, the fishies. etc. I know here in the PNW we would have seals all over the place and trust me, you don't want lots of seals near you if you live aboard.

We used to have a man living aboard - "Grumpy Joe" and he threw all his fruit and veg leftovers overboard every morning. For the next two hours, I'd have to dodge gulls & cormorants dive bombing everyone who moved on the dock.

I come down on the no side, mostly for the amount of birds I know it draws and the number of seals I imagine it would.

[Hudson Force]

I would generally not approve of throwing any foodstuff overboard, but I do understand that there are differences depending upon location. A big factor is the nutrient levels of the water, particularly in an area without a great tidal exchange or river flow and the degree of fertilizer or agricultural runoff from the shore.

I probably wouldn't be troubled by someone tossing the stems from a bunch of grapes eaten in the cockpit, but that should be the limit!

[a64pilot]

Well, pretty much all old food goes overboard, and I’ve only rarely noticed any kind of reaction from any sea life.
Now I’m talking at anchor, not in a Marina, there nothing goes overboard, except for an odd tool every now and again.
Best screwdriver I ever had is on the bottom at Vero Beach

[Uncle Bob]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Well, pretty much all old food goes overboard, and I’ve only rarely noticed any kind of reaction from any sea life.
Now I’m talking at anchor, not in a Marina, there nothing goes overboard, except for an odd tool every now and again.
Best screwdriver I ever had is on the bottom at Vero Beach

A rigger I once met said he often launches a rough cheap screwdriver overboard on big jobs just to get the inevitable over and done with!

[Dave_S]

Usually I just throw my phone, glasses and those irreplaceable special thread nuts and bolts.

I'm starting my own artificial reef.

[Cheechako]

Only that which can go through a sink strainer.. except oils and grease.

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by zeehag

Quote:
Originally Posted by thinwater View Post
A great many marinas will curse you for that, because it adds to shoaling. Eventually, the slips become more shallow. It's a no-no.

i have never heard this one;.... crabs and fish eat all i dump over..
shoaling happens when currents bring muck and dirt and sand to where dredges are needed.... food is not static not constant--it vanishes into the innards of sea life.

You did not read closely.
a. He said oyster shells. They are solid, like a rock, and there is nothing to eat. In many areas they have been intensionally dumped as stable fill. They don't go anywhere.

b. Shoaling happens in nearly all US east coast marinas. Shallow water and lots of run-off. Heck, there are marina that do not allow in-slip hull cleaning because of shoaling and constant dredging expense. Local fact, perhaps, not opinion or supposition.


I'm not talking about fish food. That is a different discussion. Just that there are many places on the Chesapeake where dumping oyster shells is a problem. the water is too shallow already. If you dump them on an oyster reef, I'm good with that.