My dilemma has always been old fishing nets. Many times on my long trips I have found the tangled remains of commercial nets on the beach. Many times these contained dead birds, including an eagle, who got tangled up in the mesh. Typically the nets have been too bulky, heavy and dangerous for me to think about carrying them back. Flipping with a net on the deck of the boat is surely a formula for disaster. In the past I have built a driftwood fire and burned up the net. The problem with this is the black toxic smoke (most nets are nylon) that poured out from the fire. Still the nasty smoke was the lesser of the two evils. A friend of mine recently told me a better way. He suggested rolling up the net into a tight ball then building a fire and toss in several beach rocks and let them get super hot. Then with improvised tongs lift the hot rocks out and place them on top of the net ball. The hot rocks will melt into the net and fuse everything together. This will prevent the net ball from unraveling and endangering wild life. The smoke will be minimal. After that if possible bury the ball or wedge it into the rocks. A good soluition to a bad problem. Bob *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
In line with previously suggested sinking of burned cans - why not sink this plastic ball too? It will decompose very slowly in water, but, probably, faster than on dry land. > A friend of mine recently told me a better way. He suggested rolling up > the net into a tight ball then building a fire and toss in several beach rocks > and let them get super hot. Then with improvised tongs lift the hot rocks out > and place them on top of the net ball. The hot rocks will melt into the net > and fuse everything together. This will prevent the net ball from unraveling > and endangering wild life. The smoke will be minimal. > After that if possible bury the ball or wedge it into the rocks. A good > soluition to a bad problem. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
alex wrote: >In line with previously suggested sinking of burned cans - why not sink this >plastic ball too? It will decompose very slowly in water, but, probably, >faster than on dry land. > Actually the fastest way to decompose most plastics is ultraviolet light (sun) exposure. Some plastics may be corroded by the salt water, but as a rule of thumb, the UV is better bet. Sinking the plastics (most will need weighting) will only serve to shield them form the ultraviolet light. cheers, Kevin *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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