I have now covered more than 200 miles of the Illinois River and looking out from a 35ft high "perch" (the Pilothouse), I have come to the conclusion that these "Yanks" up here are entirely too tidy.

I have seen 3 milk crates and driftwood. There are a few wires running out from the shoreline at the fleets that a use could be found for, there are plenty of growing vines, multi-sized trees for shelter making, but I am not seeing any 5 gal buckets, boards, PVC piping, etc that seem to line the waterways down south.

Very Interesting,,,,,could it be that the "Yanks" don't intentionally crap in their own nest????

I'll let y'all know what comes out from under the trees, if anything, as the river levels go down.

I have always wondered, is the majority of the stuff normally found along a shoreline junk from the folks onshore, or flotsam/jetsam from those afloat? My guess is that it comes from the boats...

Or all the crap upstream floats and logjams farther down?

Hey OBG,

I spend a lot of time on the water in my area and I would say that most of the stuff I find comes from the shore. What I find in the spring of the year is parts of (sometimes whole) docks that are damaged/displaced by ice movement. In popular ice fishing areas wooden blocking is used to support the ice fishing huts above the lake slush, this blocking usually becomes frozen in the ice and is often abandoned to float around the lake in the spring.

We have had a huge amount of rain this spring so the water is high (especially in dam controlled lakes) and there is an abundance of floaters in the waterways, making for lots of hazards.

Mike

Here in NYC, the storm drains still empty directly into the harbor. Lots of junk in the water after a good rainstorm.

I agree with M Dinana that a lot of the stuff down south started up north and just floated downstream.

I will have to respectfully disagree with you OBG, most of the boaters I know realize that what they throw overboard could come back to haunt them. Poking holes in the hull, clogging cooling intake or fouling a prop. So, I'm blamin' it all on you landlubbers.

DesertFox is right about this. All the boaters I've ever known either took their trash ashore or made sure that what went over the side sank stright to the bottom. I've seen plenty of boaters toss beercans over, but not a one that was not ripped open like an empty banana peel. I'd note that almost all of those who I saw do this did so because the local authorities did not apporve of them drinking at all, in part because they were under 21. Boaters take floating trash back ashore with them.

"...I would say that most of the stuff I find comes from the shore..."

No real surprise. I have limited water experience, when I was a kid an uncle had a place on the central coast of CA, I used to go down to the rocks (no beaches there) and see lots of 55 gallon drums and other goodies that I was/am sure came in on the tide. But that was lot ago...

A few decades ago a study was conducted to measure the decreased depositional flow of Mississippi sediment in the delta. A archaeologist came up with a novel methodology of examining aluminum cans in the sediment, the ever evolving church key, pull tab, bubble punch etc being a perfect marker with known dates of market introduction.

I like to snorkel and rest assured northern ponds and lakes are a veritable submerged trash heap in places.