We've all seen changes in the environment, some good, some not so good, some horrible. Narragansett Bay is cleaner than it has been in 75 years, but it still has major problems; over nitrification is causing algae blooms, dead zones, clam and fish kills. Deadly new bacteria has been found in the northern reaches of the bay. More beaches have been closed than ever before, most because of high levels of fecal mater in the water.

When we're not turning the bay into a toilet, we're turning it into a dump: the shores are littered with plastic bags, cans, paper, soiled diapers and other assorted crap. I was walking the rocks recently and on the way to one of my favorite dive sites I notices some *&^$en ahole decided that the 300 million year old rocks needed a touch of graffiti to bring a little of the ghetto to the Narragansett shoreline.

This is the stuff that people do to THEIR environment. This isn’t about the cumulative effects of global warming and what coal fired utilities and manufacturing plants are spewing into the atmosphere. This is what we the people are doing…and with total disregard for are home…planet earth. I thought everyone learned at an early age (animals do) that you don’t defecate where you eat. I’m sorry if I’m on a rant here but now this article (http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-83alteredoceans5,0,3691173.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines)just put me over the top.

I would hate to live in a world without coral reefs, but most of them are in serious trouble and so are we if we keep heading down this slippery slope.

Any ideas on how we can improve things?

I have a few:

100 hours of community service dedicated to cleaning the shoreline to anyone found littering or defacing (spray painting) the shoreline.

The same for people that walk their dogs on the beach and don’t bother to pick up their mess.

Mandadory field trips to the shoreline for every child enrolled in a RI school. Emphasis on our most important and fragile ecosystem.

I could not agree with you more Mike! I have one for you....as I walk the beautiful shorline of that wonderful place known as Cuttyhunk, my buddy Don and I were discussing all the friggin lobster pots that litter the shoreline over there (among other places)!!! Now I believe there is a law which prohibits people from taking these pots from where they have been left???? Kind of a stupid law if you ask me....couldn't someone start a business retrieving these eyesores and refurb them for resale/re-use???? I mean...especially since the legal owners certainly are not going to scour the shoreline to retrieve them? They just sit there were they are and make the shoreline look very urban!:huh:

Plastic bottles and containers should also be outlawed! They are not biodegradeable and they wash up everywhere.....they should be done away with and go all glass and aluminum....at least these are biodegradeable!

Mike I could not agree more.
I feel Like the Indian in the commercial
( u gotta be old to remember that.)
I see more an more in the way of hand trash spewed on the beaches every day.Without sounding racist.Their seems to be a certain ethnic groups that I see polluting our shore's with hand trash.Summer visitors, that perhaps they do like they did in their former countries.I take the time to learn them when I can.
Not much we can do about fecal matter.In most of our shore towns it is from birds, swans,geese an the like.They have to close the adjoining beaches after a good rain.Our shore lakes are 100 yr.old catch basins an are in dire need of dredging.

Driving down a dirt road toward one of my favorite nearby rock strewn fishing holes I observed absolutely no trash. Pristine was a word that came to mind.

Put on my waders and walked to the beach and waded in the water trying to balance on the rocks utilizing my corkers, which I hardly ever use. I was amazed at all the chit floating by in the water. It was if someone had brought a trash container to the waters edge uptide from where I was casting and emptied it out into the surf line. The breeze and the tide were both working in my direction maybe why thats why it was especially bad I dont know. Bigfish you know where I mean, not that we have ever fished there together, but I know you go there with Peter ?. It used to be that people who went to the shore cleaned up after themselves and boaters made sure nothing ended up in the water, but I dont believe that is true anymore.

And all of us fertilize our lawns and the rain runoff carries the nitrogen from the lawn to the catch basin into the stream, into the river, into the ocean.

I agree with you guys..its a shame to see all the waste (trash and disrespect) along the shorelines.

Amen to that Bigfish! Id do the lobsterpot biz..I see pots everywhere.....they never get claimed..therefore they never go away.


And all of us fertilize our lawns and the rain runoff carries the nitrogen from the lawn to the catch basin into the stream, into the river, into the ocean.

Clammer, should do his part by starting an organic bloooofish fertilizer business..:jester:

:behead: :gorez:

It is the Age of Darkness

I remember the old indian guy crying commercial.
Pretty sad what is happening to our planet, we need to cut back on the population and go back to the old days I guess.

Not all of us use fertilizer, I don't and I bet Bigfish doesn't either. I hate cutting grass, it cuts into my fishing time

jamestown is a classic example. one of the most beautiful/special places on this planet(in my eyes) and its totally trashed.

Don't even get me started on litter.... I'll need moderating ;)

... I have one for you....as I walk the beautiful shorline of that wonderful place known as Cuttyhunk, my buddy Don and I were discussing all the friggin lobster pots that litter the shoreline over there (among other places)!!! ...

Oh, you mean cutty-junk. We could not believe all the garbage on the shore there. It was sickening.

OK.. lobster traps lost in a storm are clearly different than a squid box or other garbage left behind out of ignorance. I am in total agreement on everything else, but I dont think that traps belong in the mix.

It is immensely sad

do you think there is any correlation with the lack of garbage cans? Most, maybe all, RI beaches no longer have trash cans. I know its no excuse, but it may make casual litter easier for people? Just a thought.

"For more than a decade, teams led by Richard Feely, a chemical oceanographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle, have traveled from Antarctica to the Aleutian Islands, taking tens of thousands of water samples to gauge how the ocean's acidity is changing.
In April, Feely returned from a cruise to the North Pacific, where he took pH measurements at locations the team first sampled in 1991. This time, Feely's group found that the average pH in surface waters had dropped an additional 0.025 units in 15 years -- a relatively large change for such a short time."

I was taking the water samples for Dr. Feely and other researchers on the southern leg of this cruise.....the information gathered is pretty impressive and convincing, we have essentially destroyed our planet and the chances of restoring it are slim.
great post fisheye, i hope more people are conservation minded and take actions into their own hands. unfortunately i don't see it happening. rhode island is a good start, but with the trash and destruction inland its a long road ahead.
we need to each do our part, and try to pass on to the next generation. but will a small group of fishermen help in the long run?

do you think there is any correlation with the lack of garbage cans? Most, maybe all, RI beaches no longer have trash cans. I know its no excuse, but it may make casual litter easier for people? Just a thought.


Something I am noticing more of.Convience stores,Fast food lots,gas stations, garbage cans are dissapearing.I guess with the increase of hauling rates nobody wants to be responsible for refuse anymore.So it gets tossed an goes down a drain----That leads to the ocean.

All that has been said is true, even after the clubs have their conservation dates and clean up the beaches. I for one am constantly amazed at the trash picked up on the beaches the MBBA cleans every spring. Dumpsters overflowing! Maybe it would help if we as fisherman or conservationists pick up some trash everytime we leave the beach. After all I am sure that all who are reading this do follow carry in and carry out!

Regarding the lobsta traps, I think they should be hauled up to the dunes or high banks and allow motha nature to rebuild the sand areas around them. Leaving them in place simply creates a hazard. Anyone ever stumble over one in the dark in waist high water? Frightening at the least. I don't think I have ever seen anyone claim a trap in my many years on the beach.

do you think there is any correlation with the lack of garbage cans? Most, maybe all, RI beaches no longer have trash cans. I know its no excuse, but it may make casual litter easier for people? Just a thought.

I do..but then again....one spot I fish every once in a while, has a huge dumpster no more than 50ft away from the shoreline which is constantly littered with empty squid boxes, plastic bags, diapers, monofilament and other random stupid chit. ignorant lazy mtfers! plain and simple :af:

everytime i go fishin with my dad we bring along one of those large garbage bags you use for the yard barrels. fill it up each time and when we go back the trash situation is worse then before....those who do this aren't people they are savages. and on the walk back from the breakwater there are 3-4 trash cans

people suck.

has anyone seen the Discovery Channel "Global Warming" show Tom Brokaw did? Some downright scary facts in there. I highly recommend you watch the next re-run.

The Apocalypse is coming. They say if we keep living (humans) the way we do that by 21-2200 half of all species will be wiped out, what will remain will be insects..which will carry diseases, which will probably wipe out whatever is left. Not to mention all the inevitable storms and wars over hunger, farm land..ect...scary F#$%^&*( S#$%

We need to go back to 2-300 yrs ago when everthing was powered by horses and tall ships ect...that means computers and internet gotta go too..

but we all know this is never gonna happen..i think its just gonna get worse and worse and worse and.....:yak6:

How about Mylar balloons? Walk the south or west side of BI and you'll see dozens of them. Any that get aloft inshore make it into the ocean on the prevailing wind. Make T-shirt bags look scarce. They last forever...

No fertilizer here Slip!

I tell you talk about picking up after others.....when I was running the Race in my CJ.....as little room as I had in it I would frequently pick up trash and debris....put it in the Jeep and drop it in the dumpster on my way off. I picked up a few wheels and tires too! Now that I have a pickup on the sand....I will be able to pick up a little more than before....if the damn plovers ever leave!!!

[QUOTE=MotoXcowboy]has anyone seen the Discovery Channel "Global Warming" show Tom Brokaw did? Some downright scary facts in there. I highly recommend you watch the next re-run.


I've seen it a few times.
Seems like we are seing more & more warmer water species of fish up my way, that it won't be too many years till we have albies and bonito Quincy bay!
Maybe when my 2 boys are my age, we might be fishing for marlin in Boston harbor !!!

The thing that will help cleaning up the litter is education. Back in the early 60s they had the "litter bug" TV, school and magazine campaign,which over time really worked. People were scorned if they littered.

Looks like there needs to be some re-education, but i don't think most people now a days would really care if they were scorned.:doh:

And all of us fertilize our lawns and the rain runoff carries the nitrogen from the lawn to the catch basin into the stream, into the river, into the ocean.

we the people have been fooled by the media into believing that...
that being: that we need commercial (chemical) fertilizer to grow
a lawn.....it's all those scott's commercials playing in your head.
programming.... we are programmed....duped into believing it
on a mass scale.

when you fertilize a lawn organically....there is zero run off.
same with farmland.

we are mining the earth of its trace elements.
we are havesting the earth of un-renewable resources
....by using commercial fertilizers:yak4:

Something I am noticing more of.Convience stores,Fast food lots,gas stations, garbage cans are dissapearing.I guess with the increase of hauling rates nobody wants to be responsible for refuse anymore.So it gets tossed an goes down a drain----That leads to the ocean.You're partly correct about the increased hauling costs, but many places are tired of paying to haul trash that John Q Public throws into the business' trash container. It happens more than you think. Ron

do you think there is any correlation with the lack of garbage cans? Most, maybe all, RI beaches no longer have trash cans. I know its no excuse, but it may make casual litter easier for people? Just a thought.

Absolutely, even at the state beaches where most folks do try and dispose of their garbage properly. They even have food concessions there and no place to dispose of the napkins/wrappers/bottles etc. RI definately went down the wrong track in removing all of those trash containers.

I m kind of ashamed of my generation because nobody loves the outdoors and nature anymore ,we are just of bunch of driggies and drunks who play videos games. i dont think these littler bugs have ever heard of putting trash in there pockets and walking off the beach and throwing it away in a container or taking it home.

im in my seinor year of high school and only have 3 friends who love the outdoors like me,its sad im scared what the future leaders of this country will be like. we cant keep putting all this junk into the air and expect nothing bad to happen. we have the technogly to have clean energy but nobody wants to apply it and stand up to the big polluting oil companys.

[QUOTE=MotoXcowboy]has anyone seen the Discovery Channel "Global Warming" show Tom Brokaw did? Some downright scary facts in there. I highly recommend you watch the next re-run.


I've seen it a few times.
Seems like we are seing more & more warmer water species of fish up my way, that it won't be too many years till we have albies and bonito Quincy bay!
Maybe when my 2 boys are my age, we might be fishing for marlin in Boston harbor !!!

it really depends on how close the gulf stream is to the coast or how far warm water fingers shoot off of the stream. when my grandpa( 74yrs old) was a kid he remembers a guy catching a tarpon in p-town so Exotics
are nothing new.

I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You're a plague and we are the cure.

toonoc has been invaded by a body snatcher....and is no longer human...pass the word :hee:

I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You're a plague and we are the cure.

Viral? Maybe fungal. Many moons ago on a vision quest in the mountains I had a similar revelation :pop:

We are a flesh eating bacteria to this planet.

I hate litter of anykind.

There is just NO excuse to litter, trash can or not IMO. Take it with you. Yes there should be more cans and the cans need to be emptied on a regular basis but you need to not litter ever.
Trash in the water is an outright sin. I hate seeing a plastic bag in the water.

As for run off, and nitrite build up has a big impact on marine life, it is time to mandate (regardless of cost) that water front homes be on a sewer systems. If you want to play you have to pay. It is navie to think that the dump you just took is not going to find its way into the water when your septic system leaching field is feet from the waters edge. Moreover, towns should never allow street run off to go directly into the water, there needs to be some filtering system between the runoff and the sea. In a heavy rain the sh*t that comes out of those pipes is foul.

The reason that most of the east coast bay scallop population has declinded and disappeard in some areas, is directly related to water quality. One bad rainstorm and you can be screwed for years. (Bay scallops are very water quality sensitve)

Lets talk eel grass. While you may not like it on your prop it is the key element to a healthy bay, if you treat the water poorly and wipe out eel grass, the entire microcosim of creatures up the food chanin suffer.

Also, even if you don't flush your head, but take or clean a shower on board, and you are in a sensitive place(s) (like Katama Bay) a single cup of clorox bleach in the water is actually worse then a lot of people flushing poop into the water. All large boats should have "gray-water" tanks discharge them way offshore or in designated sites.

IMO the keys are:

1) don't litter at all
2) put sewer systems in on all waterfront homes
3) Stop backfilling our marshlands
4) no direct street runoff
5) re-establish eel grass in bays


If we did this I thin we would be a hell of a lot better off. But it will not be cheap.

I hate litter of anykind.

There is just NO excuse to litter, trash can or not IMO. Take it with you. Yes there should be more cans and the cans need to be emptied on a regular basis but you need to not litter ever.
Trash in the water is an outright sin. I hate seeing a plastic bag in the water.

As for run off, and nitrite build up has a big impact on marine life, it is time to mandate (regardless of cost) that water front homes be on a sewer systems. If you want to play you have to pay. It is navie to think that the dump you just took is not going to find its way into the water when your septic system leaching field is feet from the waters edge. Moreover, towns should never allow street run off to go directly into the water, there needs to be some filtering system between the runoff and the sea. In a heavy rain the sh*t that comes out of those pipes is foul.

The reason that most of the east coast bay scallop population has declinded and disappeard in some areas, is directly related to water quality. One bad rainstorm and you can be screwed for years. (Bay scallops are very water quality sensitve)

Lets talk eel grass. While you may not like it on your prop it is the key element to a healthy bay, if you treat the water poorly and wipe out eel grass, the entire microcosim of creatures up the food chanin suffer.

Also, even if you don't flush your head, but take or clean a shower on board, and you are in a sensitive place(s) (like Katama Bay) a single cup of clorox bleach in the water is actually worse then a lot of people flushing poop into the water. All large boats should have "gray-water" tanks discharge them way offshore or in designated sites.

IMO the keys are:

1) don't litter at all
2) put sewer systems in on all waterfront homes
3) Stop backfilling our marshlands
4) no direct street runoff
5) re-establish eel grass in bays


If we did this I thin we would be a hell of a lot better off. But it will not be cheap.

Rhode Island has initiatives to (slowly) bring along waterfront communities to the sewer system though my understanding is that they don't have the overall capacity to hook everyone up.

There are Eelgrass restoration projects happening but I don't think it was a lot and I'm not sure how successful

And unless you have connections to senior politicians or CRMC people :doh: then you will be unlikely to backfill a marsh - though I'm sure greasing the right palms and connections will get you there :hidin:

If all our food and drink have pesticides and pollutants, if you clean your sink tub or toilet with comet or any number of household cleaners, if you drive a car, on and on...... the drastic changes necessary to save this planet will not occur unless there is a miracle.

Put your head between your legs and kiss your arse goodbye :lurk:

Keep cleaning up after yourself and lead by example.

This thread made me think of George Carlins (edited) skit below -

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

We're so self-important. So self-important. Everybody's going to save something now. "Save the trees, save the bees, save the whales, save those snails." And the greatest arrogance of all: save the planet. What? Are these f* people kidding me? Save the planet, we don't even know how to take care of ourselves yet. We haven't learned how to care for one another, we're gonna save the f*g planet?

I'm getting tired of that chit. Tired of that chit. I'm tired of f*ing Earth Day, I'm tired of these self-righteous environmentalists, these white, bourgeois liberals who think the only thing wrong with this country is there aren't enough bicycle paths. People trying to make the world save for their Volvos. Besides, environmentalists don't give a chit about the planet. They don't care about the planet. Not in the abstract they don't. Not in the abstract they don't. You know what they're interested in? A clean place to live. Their own habitat. They're worried that some day in the future, they might be personally inconvenienced. Narrow, unenlightened self-interest doesn't impress me.

Besides, there is nothing wrong with the planet. Nothing wrong with the planet. The planet is fine. The PEOPLE are f*ed. Difference. Difference. The planet is fine. Compared to the people, the planet is doing great. Been here four and a half billion years. Did you ever think about the arithmetic? The planet has been here four and a half billion years. We've been here, what, a hundred thousand? Maybe two hundred thousand? And we've only been engaged in heavy industry for a little over two hundred years. Two hundred years versus four and a half billion. And we have the CONCEIT to think that somehow we're a threat? That somehow we're gonna put in jeopardy this beautiful little blue-green ball that's just a-floatin' around the sun?

The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through all kinds of things worse than us. Been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles...hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, worlwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages...And we think some plastic bags, and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference? The planet...the planet...the planet isn't going anywhere. WE ARE!

We're going away. Pack your chit, folks. We're going away. And we won't leave much of a trace, either. Thank God for that. Maybe a little styrofoam. Maybe. A little styrofoam. The planet'll be here and we'll be long gone. Just another failed mutation. Just another closed-end biological mistake. An evolutionary cul-de-sac. The planet'll shake us off like a bad case of fleas. A surface nuisance.

You wanna know how the planet's doing? Ask those people at Pompeii, who are frozen into position from volcanic ash, how the planet's doing. You wanna know if the planet's all right, ask those people in Mexico City or Armenia or a hundred other places buried under thousands of tons of earthquake rubble, if they feel like a threat to the planet this week. Or how about those people in Kilowaia, Hawaii, who built their homes right next to an active volcano, and then wonder why they have lava in the living room.

The planet will be here for a long, long, LONG time after we're gone, and it will heal itself, it will cleanse itself, 'cause that's what it does. It's a self-correcting system. The air and the water will recover, the earth will be renewed, and if it's true that plastic is not degradable, well, the planet will simply incorporate plastic into a new pardigm: the earth plus plastic. The earth doesn't share our prejudice towards plastic. Plastic came out of the earth. The earth probably sees plastic as just another one of its children. Could be the only reason the earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place. It wanted plastic for itself. Didn't know how to make it. Needed us. Could be the answer to our age-old egocentric philosophical question, "Why are we here?" Plastic...ahole.

So, the plastic is here, our job is done, we can be phased out now. And I think that's begun. Don't you think that's already started? I think, to be fair, the planet sees us as a mild threat. Something to be dealt with. And the planet can defend itself in an organized, collective way, the way a beehive or an ant colony can. A collective defense mechanism. The planet will think of something. What would you do if you were the planet? How would you defend yourself against this troublesome, pesky species? Let's see... Viruses. Viruses might be good. They seem vulnerable to viruses. And, uh...viruses are tricky, always mutating and forming new strains whenever a vaccine is developed. Perhaps, this first virus could be one that compromises the immune system of these creatures. Perhaps a human immunodeficiency virus, making them vulnerable to all sorts of other diseases and infections that might come along. And maybe it could be spread sexually, making them a little reluctant to engage in the act of reproduction.

Well, that's a poetic note. And it's a start. And I can dream, can't I? See I don't worry about the little things: bees, trees, whales, snails. I think we're part of a greater wisdom than we will ever understand. A higher order. Call it what you want. Know what I call it? The Big Electron. The Big Electron...whoooa. Whoooa. Whoooa. It doesn't punish, it doesn't reward, it doesn't judge at all. It just is. And so are we. For a little while.