Beach litter:strings and lines and stuff

[brendaward]

but when it goes down the only way is up

[Jonquil_d]

Must agree: it isn't only on the beaches.
Our local village has a woman working full time with a trolley and a litter picking tool- ALL DAY EVERY DAY JUST PICKING LITTER- from time to time we see men with power sprays removing chewing gum from pavements . ....I don't know what the rubbish men think about our household....(maybe they do not think) but on the fortnightly pick up of glass bottles they can take away a load of beer and vodka bottles picked up from the road back from the village...(I prefer not to leave bottles rolling around on footpaths and roads.)....and we are a teetotal household.
But it is far worse than casual litter
I just don't get the mentality that can take black sacks full of rubbish and just dump it anywhere alongside a lane side. One time a decorator had shoved paint pots, old brushes, rags and wallpaper through a gap in a hedge.Another, someone must have spent a great deal of time arranging cigarette ends from his car in a very neat circle on the supermarket carpark....I could go on....arm chairs and mattresses at beauty spots... it's not casual its quite deliberate.

[brendaward]

The refuse system is not helping the situation. A lot of councils charge £20-£40 for taking away bulky items. Some things taken to recycling places are turned away. One local here was turned away because he arrived with a van and they thought it was business waste. Those who are obviously not concerned with the impact on wildlife or the environment wont or cant pay so take a dump it attitude. The systems in place are for decent people like you and I but do alienate and fire up the less shall we say educated members of society. There will always be this type of selfish human but it would be better to make these services free rather than have all sorts dumped around us. When things go wrong with the system sometimes it is better to backtrack rather than stick to the rules that may inflate the problem. As for beach litter, The sea carries litter from around the world and it is a world problem. How do we know where it come from?

[muddyfeet]

Below is a pic of some discarded fishing line I picked up off my local beach...



So dangerous.

[counterlady]

I find it outrageous so much litter. My kids never drop litter always give it to me or put in their pockets till they can put it somewhere properly.

Maybe, cleaning up of rubbish on beaches should be compulsory for those claiming job seekers allowance !!!!

[maccyd82]

Do people think that the majority of this discarded fishing line is commercial or from private users. If commercial should we all stop eating fish then so there is no market for this?

I go geocaching from time to time and there is a "cache in, trash out" inititive there where you walk to find your cache and then take a bag and pick up litter on the way back to your start point. This is practiced with geocachers all over the world....every little helps as they say....

Geocaching > Cache In Trash Out

[tom00_uk]

depends on the type of fishing gear and the location its being used for it to be deliberately lost by a commercial vessel.
Due to the restrictions imposed on them by the quota system etc then all gear should be marked in some way, of course your not going to mark mono filament gill nets, but the buoys that hold the nets in place will be marked. Also by becoming captain or fishing master you should have developed a fairly good understanding of the terrain you can safely put your gear with out the risk of losing it. they nets etc are not cheap and when your resulting wage is what's left after all the boats overheads you are inclined to not want to damage or lose items.

there will be the odd short sections of rope lost but this is normally unavoidable and vessels i have been on have also landed or burnt at sea gear they have brought up that was caught by their gear, same goes for gear that was broken in use. There are a few occasions where large sections of net etc will be lost either whilst deployed or from freak waves from the deck. this will have the potential to ghost fish until they decay/break apart.

non commercial is a whole different kettle of fish, people will often fish with the wrong gear or in the wrong spot. resulting in lost lines and hooks. there are also people that are not able or wont remove hooks so cut the catch off and release it. Or due to the relative cheapness of line compared to the amount of time available you see people discarding lines when they get knotted and tangled instead of sorting out the mess. Some will take the line to a bin, but if the bins not sealed to stop gulls getting in or wind blowing the contents out then this sensible act can still result in the gear being lost to the sea.

[muddyfeet]

Originally Posted by maccyd82

Do people think that the majority of this discarded fishing line is commercial or from private users. If commercial should we all stop eating fish then so there is no market for this?

I go geocaching from time to time and there is a "cache in, trash out" inititive there where you walk to find your cache and then take a bag and pick up litter on the way back to your start point. This is practiced with geocachers all over the world....every little helps as they say....

Geocaching > Cache In Trash Out

Going by my picture, I'd say this was from a non-commercial source. It may have been dropped on the spot, washed up by the tide, or maybe as tom00_uk suggested, the line may have been disposed of correctly in the waste-bin but it has been taken out of the bin by wind/gulls etc.

Discarded fishing line is one of my pet hates of beach litter.