New Anchoring Restrictions in Georgia

Jan 11, 2014
11,323
Sabre 362 113 Fair Haven, NY
I've seen MUCH more sea grass and growth in common anchorages in the Great Lakes. The very popular and famous Pool in Bae Fine has a lot of weeds. Since the zebra mussels have cleaned the water so much, seabed growth is booming. Bass, walleye, pike, sunfish, drum and more live in those grasses. I think anchoring should be banned in the Great Lakes which are much more fragile than coastal wetland waters.
Since much of the weed growth on the Great Lakes is from non-native invasive species, perhaps we should require frequent anchoring to help alleviate the weeds? :poke:

The estuaries along the GA coast no doubt have some very robust areas where an anchored boat is going to do little damage, or certainly less damage than a hurricane and is quite likely that there are some areas that are environmentally sensitive with a bottom shouldn't be disturbed. There may well be times of the year where it is damaging to anchor and at other times anchoring has no effect. There is always a danger to painting issues like where to anchor with broad brush strokes.
 
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May 25, 2012
4,333
john alden caravelle 42 sturgeon bay, wis
.... and yet the fisheries on the the great lakes are in big trouble. your assumptions are way of base and incorrect. the decaying plant material has created huge dead zones. the R/V Neesky overnights many times at my dock each summer. capt. greg stamatelakys is a good friend of mine. the scientist aboard tell a grin tale. but hey, you can make up all the conjecture you want. i'm used to it.
there is a thing called the food chain. you cut one link and everything up the chain suffers.

like all sea stories, don't let the facts get in the way of a good story!

love the new law!
 
Feb 14, 2017
29
Mainecat 38 Anacortes
This law pretty well screws the untended free pumpout facilities that will not be able to keep their side of the record keeping requirements. Likewise, any portable pump out devices often used in marinas--who will keep the shore records?
 

Tod

.
Dec 30, 2010
82
Montgomery 17 trailered
.... and yet the fisheries on the the great lakes are in big trouble. your assumptions are way of base and incorrect. the decaying plant material has created huge dead zones. the R/V Neesky overnights many times at my dock each summer. capt. greg stamatelakys is a good friend of mine. the scientist aboard tell a grin tale. but hey, you can make up all the conjecture you want. i'm used to it.
there is a thing called the food chain. you cut one link and everything up the chain suffers.

like all sea stories, don't let the facts get in the way of a good story!

love the new law!
Decaying plant material is unrelated to Lake Erie's dead zone, according to a study by Zhou et al.
To examine why dead zones develop in Lake Erie, lead study author Yuntao Zhou looked at historical weather records, data on lake and river conditions and other factors. Zhou and the study co-authors identified four triggers for big dead zones in the middle part of the lake.

  • Low water inflow from rivers
  • A high influx of phosphorous between May and July
  • Strong northwesterly winds in June, which push nutrient runoff from the western part of Lake Erie into the lake's central basin
  • July wind speeds, which affect water circulation. Strong winds stir up the lake.
https://www.livescience.com/49347-lake-erie-dead-zone-drought.html
 
May 25, 2012
4,333
john alden caravelle 42 sturgeon bay, wis
tod, read the article dude. it clearly states that one of the two methods for dead zones is caused by the decaying plant material. and yet the article title implies it does not.
the big research ship from U of M and the UW research vessel dock in sturge often each summer. i talk to these people that are doing the testing. becky's article does not even mention the huge problem from all the run off of all the crap dumped on lawns and golf courses through out the basin. becky implies that it is only the farms that give us food that create this while the suburbanites lawn crap is so huge and give us nothing.
yes, the lack of summer wind hurts the re oxygenation of the water.
becky, i give you an F on your article
 
Jul 27, 2011
4,989
Bavaria 38E Alamitos Bay
thankyou for proving my point. the food chain starts in the "mud". the spawning grounds of many things are in the "mud" .
love the new law.
It’s a stretch to say that the food chain starts in the mud. It might be part of an estuarine food web, even an important part, but bacteria and bacterial processes dominate mud habitats like nowhere else. The only kinds of “animals” that feed directly in mud are various kinds of deposit/detritus feeders—e.g., specialized worms and animals like sea cucumbers and pill-bug-like creatures known as isopods. Sure, larger more tasty creatures such as clams might be buried in mud, but they filter water above the mud for food. Unless the muds are tidally uncovered and exposed to long-billed shore birds or human clam diggers, etc., I doubt much can get at them. Certain flatfishes might be able to rip off part of a siphon, etc. If you happen to dredge one out and it falls off the anchor, it will rebury itself. The oxic layer of mud is only a few centimeters deep and watery. That is where most of the “action” is. The deeper, packed mud that sticks to your anchor is likely to be anoxic—good place for certain bacteria to “feed”, but little else. The mud habitat is more toward the “end” of the food chain, where organic material produced at the surface is decomposed and remineralized.
 
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May 25, 2012
4,333
john alden caravelle 42 sturgeon bay, wis
Mayflies ................................................................ but that is in fresh water. so much for your nothing lives their theory.

so, when lorain became available, hoards of yachties invaded the bahamas, dropped their anchors anywhere they pleased and it was their anchor chain that killed most of the underwater gardens that had been there leaving the sandy underwater deserts off the beaches of the islands that you all find today. just the facts. the same mentality of 'we did not hurt anything' 'we are just one little boat' 'it's not us' was the same as what i read in this thread. so you don't think the mud on your anchor changes anything. fine. what about your chain swinging 360 degrees about your anchor. what about all the dragging anchor stories we read about here. 'it was 3 am and the anchor alarm went off, caused by a thunderstorm and we were anchored on the reef and were dragging towards the shallows', sound familiar?
on the west coast they used to use squid only for the bait for the tasty fish that were available. now they serve the squid as the entree.

back to the icw in georgia. the argument that all this area is already destroyed so continuing these activities is fine. well, do what you gots to do.

i suggest that these discussions help all of us make better choices.
many times here i have written things here that were wrong and so i learned and will do better.
the ships i worked on back in the 70's and 80's polluted the lakes harshly. the run off from the coal fields, and ore fields that we dumped on was awful. it's not allowed anymore.

we can do better as awareness is increased
 
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May 17, 2004
5,031
Beneteau Oceanis 37 Havre de Grace
when lorain became available, hoards of yachties invaded the bahamas, dropped their anchors anywhere they pleased and it was their anchor chain that killed most of the underwater gardens that had been there leaving the sandy underwater deserts off the beaches of the islands that you all find today.
I don't know if a muddy seafloor is necessarily as delicate as a coral garden growing in sand. Maybe it is, maybe not, but without seeing any further research I'm not convinced. It feels to me a bit like saying that because digging in a botanical garden can do damage, kids should never be allowed to build a sand castle on the beach.
 
Oct 30, 2017
183
Catalina c 27 Lake Pueblo
tod, read the article dude. it clearly states that one of the two methods for dead zones is caused by the decaying plant material. and yet the article title implies it does not.
the big research ship from U of M and the UW research vessel dock in sturge often each summer. i talk to these people that are doing the testing. becky's article does not even mention the huge problem from all the run off of all the crap dumped on lawns and golf courses through out the basin. becky implies that it is only the farms that give us food that create this while the suburbanites lawn crap is so huge and give us nothing.
yes, the lack of summer wind hurts the re oxygenation of the water.
becky, i give you an F on your article

the excellent book, The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea, does a great job of detailing the damage of both farm runoff as well as runoff from residential and commercial lots.

it is written very well, I suggest it to anyone concerned about the health of our water ways or just interested in the history of the Gulf of Mexico.
 
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