A guy who writes for the Evansville Courier & Press has a good piece on boaters and anglers who litter the Ohio River.
I've noticed a lot of litter left behind at popular fishing spots around here. Often, it's near the ashes of a fire. It's not that hard to carry your trash out in the same bag you used to bring it in, but some people just don't care.
1 comment:
That was a good piece,and yes, they are pigs. As one who enjoys fishing, I can tell you that it's a problem everywhere you go. The river, lakes, parks along the river...almost anywhere you go to fish (particularly bank fishing) there are piles of trash. Cigarette butts, bait cups, hook/sinker packages, loose line, food wrappers, snuff cans...almost always the same stuff. Before I sit down to fish, I take one of the bags I bring and pick it all up, then set that bag aside to carry to the garbage can with our own trash.
It makes me mad, because these are the people you expect to have at least some appreciation for the outdoors. Who wants to catch fish from a polluted area, after all? I mean...what are they thinking?
Boaters are the worst, though. What is so stupid about boaters is that they have ample space to store their trash, and I've not seen a boat ramp yet that doesn't have a garbage can (or two, or three, or more) right there. We never threw anything off our boat. But...a lot of people do. Especially the beer drinkers and party boaters. The nastiest areas seem to be around the docks...and bank fishing isn't usually done around those docks, so who is to blame?
It is sad. But yeah, it would be almost impossible to patrol adequately. I like this one guy out at a lake we like to fish from...as he patrols, he stops by people fishing on the bank, and one thing he always asks is "do you have a bag for your trash?"
Yup. Two, actually. One to get ready to fish, and one to go home.
Maybe a good idea, for boaters, would be to make a trash receptacle (or bag at least) be part of the mandatory equipment, so it can be checked along with the other mandatory equipment. Seems like a good place to start, anyway.
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