There was a big brew-ha-ha out here recently about fisherman bringing entire fish back and cleaning fish at the dock and dumping the remains in the harbor. A bunch of bass remains washed up next to the boat ramp and in some salt ponds. (they take a while to breakdown)
Trash pick-up out here is rare. (I am lucky @ once per week) Bringing fish home and putting the remains in a few plastic bags for the better part of a week during the summer months is NOT the way to make friends.
Bringing them back into the saltponds and dumping lots stuff in the water is OK for a while but it will get out of hand and casue water quality problems longer term. If you notice at montauk now, you can't dump remains...they have an dumpster next to the cleaning station that is emptied every day.
Here they have nothing here and the law is confusing. The newspaper article pleeded with fishermen to clean them offshore...but no one mentioned that the law says you have to bring them in.
I don't take short fish. I do clean some in the pond, and some at home , and some on the beach and some offshore. I know I am technically breaking the law when I do it offshore, but you can't keep bringing all this stuff back with you and dumping it next to your boat at the dock. I would rather bring home meat then lots of waste. This is a "stupid" law IMO and it is not very practical.