The problem lies with pollution in small enclosed (and often poorly flushed) areas like marinas and berthing basins, not entire coastal areas. Please educate yourself a little bit.
Questions About Bottom Paint
- Thread starter cousineddy
- Start date
thanks for the suggestion - I have 2 degrees in environmental science, an advanced degree in environmental engineering and 32 years professional experience in environmental management. You?. Please educate yourself a little bit.
You would think with bona fides like those, you would understand this issue better.
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no feathers; they seem to all drive SUVs slowly in the left lane until realizing they have to take the next right. But they do “bank” their turn just like airplanes, birds and 18 wheelers.
Studies have shown time and time again that they are biased towards the objectives of the funding organization. Especially environment related studies. You can’t say follow the science. Data gets manipulated to show the intended result. Don’t let “scientific studies” put fear in your life. And, don’t let them make you feel safe about anything either. Anyway, copper doesn’t work, so how can it be harmful to aquatic life? Its a natural occurring element. That reference talks about micrograms per day. How can that be a concern in SanDiego bay? Its not even a drop in the bucket, its like a drop in the ocean. And what about all the natural occurring toxins? There is toxic algae, red tide, destructive mussels, etc. You think boat bottom paint ingredients really make a difference? Its akin to requiring catalytic converters on lawnmower’s. Albeit, not a marine biologist, just like to race sailboats and hate scrubbing the bottom before each race. So, if I funded a study, it would probably conclude that nuclear waste biocide in bottom paint is ok, cause it saves fuel and reduces the carbon footprint.
While it’s always good to be skeptical of academic or government funded research, we need to also consider how confirmation bias sometimes drives these projects as does perception bias when drawing conclusions from them. Taking any at face value without the knowledge to discern good from trash research is always a dubious choice.
And although true that boaters are probably more environmentally conscious when compared with the general population, that doesn’t convert directly to us being better stewards of the environment by conserving waste or minimizing contaminating the marine ecosystem. One yahoo dumping a can of garage stored toluene, paint thinner or waste oil down the drain can upset a sewage treatment plant sufficient to make any biological treatment plant ineffective at treating sewage making anything/everything we do useless.
moral of this story - 1. don’t believe everything you read, and 2. generalizations are always wrong sometimes.