Bio degradable tackle !

Ok, just a follow on, random, not thought through points from the Iconic Rod thread.

The world was designed to be bio degradable for a very good reason, even concrete bio degrades, everything natural does as far as I know. But, what about carbon, glass fiber, nylon etc. The point I am trying to make is all the old stuff, wood, silk lines, cork, quill etc will bio degrade and I think that was a good thing, it will serve its time and do its job. The progression from Ash, Green-hart, Cane, Split Cane, natural fibers all stopped when synthetic materials became the rage. Everyone stopped looking at the natural materials full stop. Was this a mistake? !
Given the big advantage was lightness and thinness, would have these been achieved with natural materials if the innovators had carried on looking and experimenting? And, if achieved; would it have been a lot better for fishing, the environment, the tackle trade included.
A lot better for them, have you seen how many non bio degradable rods there are in almost every junk shop. Not to mention all the fishing line hanging in trees, stuck in the ocean that seems to last forever.
Not sure what I am trying to say but, I wonder if ever a resurgence for natural materials in fishing gear might happen, and if the innovators went back to it, would we end up with better gear and a better environment; plus I imagine very marketable. And who likes nylon socks!

peter crabtree said:

Curran - the new material made from carrots, as strong as carbon fibre

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Fascinating Peter and surprising, and done in just 5 years of research and they want to go further. Illustrates my point, we just stopped looking 50 or 60 years ago when we got fixated by synthetic. Is it all there still waiting to be discovered?

I am not a doom and gloom or an alarmist but, one thing I read did make me stop and think. All this plastic, nylon etc never completely breaks down. They test the concentration of it in sea fish every year, particular cod, and every year the concentration increases, it all ends up in the ocean at some point. I believe it is already above an acceptable level for human consumption, plastic cod and chips is worse than nylon socks.

Nylon line is a nightmare, good stuff for fishing but, is there something better that is not a nightmare. Did we just stop looking?

peter crabtree said:

Curran - the new material made from carrots, as strong as carbon fibre

Click to expand...

MMMMmmmm, did'nt we have an 'expert' on this subject, forget's his name now mg:



Tongue very very very firmly in cheek.

markg said:

I am not a doom and gloom or an alarmist but, one thing I read did make me stop and think. All this plastic, nylon etc never completely breaks down. They test the concentration of it in sea fish every year, particular cod, and every year the concentration increases, it all ends up in the ocean at some point.

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Ummmm.... no. Fate of ocean plastic remains a mystery : Nature News & Comment

That's what everyone thought up until quite recently. However it seems on actually going out, looking and taking samples (instead of staying in nice warm laboratories and running "computer simulations") there is only the equivalent of 1% of expected / anticipated plastic to be found in the oceans.

The comment at the end of the above link is particularly interesting. Just cos the Greens say it's so don't mean that it is.

See also the findings of the University of Western Australia, a proper scientific institution with appropriate academic rigour http://www.plasticsnews.com/article...plastic-than-expected-polluting-ocean-surface

There are many other sources corroborating the same findings.

If it is all on the ocean floor then it would appear to have been reduced to submicroscopic particles burying themselves in the dormant silt layer and, as the millennia go by, destroyed by geothermal subduction.

PS. this doesn't mean I think it is right or appropriate for us to discard plastic all over the place, let alone dumped in the sea. On the other hand since Global Warming - sorry, "Global Climate Change" since it became clear there is no warming - I am a big fan of actual scientific evidence over mere self serving assertion.

What a clever idea. Rods made out of carrots, when it is no longer required you can eat it....................

I'll bet they're great for night fishing.

I can just see it now; You pop off to answer a call of nature, only to find on your return the middle joint of your rod has been eaten by rabbits !

Apologies, I know it's supposed to be a serious thread....I blame smudger and slaphead..



Interesting thread, though..

Interesting reading Windy's links. I am no expert on this subject and I am no eco warrior but living by the sea most of my life and done a bit of pleasure and commercial fishing have a healthy interest and often follow whats going on..
From a complete layman's outlook I find little comfort. Quite a few scientists disagreeing on the results and disputing the evidence doesn't solve the problem, meanwhile whether its :-

"250,000 tonnes, 21,290 tonnes,
U.S. National Academy of Sciences estimated that 45,000 tons of plastics washed into the oceans each year, and it noted that since then, global plastic production has increased five-fold to 265 million tons a year."

0000 tonnes would be better. And if only 1% is in the sea, they are debating where is the rest. Well, not hard to figure out; a lot of it is hanging in trees including plastic bags.

Interesting that they think it is being digested by micro organisms but, no clear evidence. And there's a danger, they will convince everyone that the problem is being solved naturally so, we can walk away and forget about it..And if its true, they are not doing a very good job on the thousands of plastic bottles, fishing line etc along my bit of tidal mark on the beach.

Scientists often get the ocean wrong, the quotas for fish stocks are usually way out, that's why the cod around Greenland got wiped out.

Theres only one sure indisputable un-debateable answer to solving the problem, stop making and using the stuff. It might be cheap but, most of its ****.

---------- Post added at 07:59 ---------- Previous post was at 07:41 ----------

Tee-Cee said:

I can just see it now; You pop off to answer a call of nature, only to find on your return the middle joint of your rod has been eaten by rabbits !

Apologies, I know it's supposed to be a serious thread....I blame smudger and slaphead..



Interesting thread, though..

Click to expand...

Ill will deal all three of you later-meanwhile go and stand outside the classroom, Your parents will be notified......Your very naughty boys.

I hope that means a light caning....................Love it !!

From memory, didn't they run a TV programme on pollution of the seas ( probably years ago ) which covered the breakdown of various plastics and other unmentionables ?? It was a sad reflection of human kind.
It doesn't bear thinking about all that c**p laying on the ocean floor, but the individual can do his best to reuse where possible and use the various bins for household matter as much as possible...Not much I grant you, but better than nothing.

I lived near Folkestone, Kent many years ago, and I was staggered by the amount of seemingly raw effluent etc so close to the shore and not that far from beaches. Never swum in the sea since....

One has to wonder where the planet will be in 50 / 100 years time, never mind the immediate future !


ps I do a lot of walking and it never ceases to amaze me how much plastic junk, by way of cups and sarnie wrappers, manage to be discarded ( in far flung places ) by what can only be fellow walkers, who, by definition, one might think, care about the planet...Obviously wrong on that one as well....
Similarly, the morons who think it's great fun to throw empty coffee mugs / Mac boxes from car windows late at night...how many do I pass in the road on my way to fishing is staggering...

£1000 fine and 3 points might stop them, but no ' bobbies on the beat ' I'm afraid..