Rotting Balls
This story is a couple months old, but I still find it intriguing. And sad.
I guess when there's a golf course next to a body of water, this is bound to happen:
Two years ago, a 16-year old diver named Alex Weber was swimming off Pebble Beach along the Pacific near Carmel, Calif. "My dad raised me underwater," says Weber, and she means it. She's a free diver: no scuba tanks; she just holds her breath. She was diving in a small cove and looked down and saw something weird. "You couldn't see the sand," she recalls, still sounding incredulous. "It was completely white."
White with golf balls. "You looked down and you're like, 'What are you doing here?' "
There were thousands of them. "It felt like a shot to the heart," she says.
She was offended. Right then, she decided to haul them up. Thus began a Sisyphean task that went on for months: She and her father would haul hundreds of pounds of them up, and then of course more golfers would hit more into the ocean.
Why is this a problem?
In the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin, the team notes that golf balls are coated with a thin polyurethane shell that degrades over time. They also contain zinc compounds that are toxic. Savoca points out that the surf and currents act like a rock grinder and break down the golf balls. While chemicals from 50,000 or so golf balls will have only a small effect on the ocean, Savoca says they do degrade into microplastic pieces that marine animals could eat. The team also notes that there are lots of coastal golf courses around the world, so this may go beyond California.
1000's upon 1000's upon 1000's of lost golf balls. Slowly degrading into more nasty waste that marine life has to deal with.
Here's the full story:
https://www.npr.org/2019/01/17/686257550/teenage-diver-finds-tons-of-golf-balls-rotting-off-california
Grace & Peace & Love to you all -
Matt
I guess when there's a golf course next to a body of water, this is bound to happen:
Two years ago, a 16-year old diver named Alex Weber was swimming off Pebble Beach along the Pacific near Carmel, Calif. "My dad raised me underwater," says Weber, and she means it. She's a free diver: no scuba tanks; she just holds her breath. She was diving in a small cove and looked down and saw something weird. "You couldn't see the sand," she recalls, still sounding incredulous. "It was completely white."
White with golf balls. "You looked down and you're like, 'What are you doing here?' "
There were thousands of them. "It felt like a shot to the heart," she says.
She was offended. Right then, she decided to haul them up. Thus began a Sisyphean task that went on for months: She and her father would haul hundreds of pounds of them up, and then of course more golfers would hit more into the ocean.
Why is this a problem?
In the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin, the team notes that golf balls are coated with a thin polyurethane shell that degrades over time. They also contain zinc compounds that are toxic. Savoca points out that the surf and currents act like a rock grinder and break down the golf balls. While chemicals from 50,000 or so golf balls will have only a small effect on the ocean, Savoca says they do degrade into microplastic pieces that marine animals could eat. The team also notes that there are lots of coastal golf courses around the world, so this may go beyond California.
1000's upon 1000's upon 1000's of lost golf balls. Slowly degrading into more nasty waste that marine life has to deal with.
Here's the full story:
https://www.npr.org/2019/01/17/686257550/teenage-diver-finds-tons-of-golf-balls-rotting-off-california
Grace & Peace & Love to you all -
Matt
