Nine Suprising Diseases You Can Catch In the Nation's Oceans

[rebel heart]

Originally Posted by zeehag

rebell heart is in north sin diego bay where the water actually circulates every day in tidal exchanges. down here by coronado, it takes a while to get in here--we have the industrial stiuff from navy --3 bases here, and nassco shipbuilders across the bay and convair cove north of us with pcbs in the anchoring mud--is the transient anchorage for cruisers ... lol A-9 anchorage--was capped in 1998, but has been found to be leaching thru the cap.
san diego bay has many faces and there are many who do not see the real face, as they are sheltered, as it were--pun might have been intended for rebel heart...isnt bad to swim in that part of sin diego bay--but the rest isnt worthy..fishing in the main channel is ok--water exchanges every day. nice and cold and fresh as it can get. where it warms up isnt fresh--is more used. yuk...and coronado has documented bad sewage system ....pours it out.....niiiice...
some folks using tidelands park, where we have to keep our dinghies, have been tested positive for various heavy metals inclusive of lead, nickel, zinc, others i am not certain--those are just the ones i have heard them talking about when they come back with their test results.
i wear boots to my knees in this foul stuff. i do not enjoy watching others develop mrsa from this bay water,,,,south of north bay is a different world, rebel heart--dont think it isnt.. the place you are is very sheltered from the disease and goo and crud of this foul bay. and down here is known as amerikas fascist city.

Okay well truth be told I don't spend a lot of time in south bay but I'll admit I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the water is a lot worse down there. Yes, we're "sheltered" up here. The flush that we get is pretty nice.

But guys have been diving all over the place around here. If you want to be really paranoid you can rock a dry suit and a one piece helmet-mask-respirator.

I've just seen a lot of people freak out and tell me how bad the water is and I'm still ticking. I'll actually be diving down in your neck of the woods next weekend I think for that bay cleanup thing. Going to the A-9 anchorage to get some junk off the sea floor I suppose.

[zeehag]

btw--rebel heart--i have been in all parts o0f this bay --EXCEPT the old A-8 hellspot . your pix are awesome--i wish the water in this bay ALL got the flush north bay to harbor island gets..would be the perfect bay, in many ways. the politix suxx, but aside from that , is nearly ideal. rock n roll hell would be so cool with a protective jetty--awesome view, clean water, wow....but has so much wake action---
i only get off coronado to go to downwind marine and sd marine exchange --bu ti used to live in your neighborhood...is good clean water there--is weird how this bay has so many different personalities to it...but that goes hand in hand with the military presence and heavy industry here, as well as the fact this is actually a working port...

[mbianka]

I'm with Rebel Heart! I need to swim two or three times a day. Luckily, the waters here on the Isle of Long are pretty clean. Though a good fresh water rinse is what I do too. Can't be salty all the time! Hell, they have swims around Manhattan Island in New York City two or three times a year. That certainly is an Urban area. They don't stop them.
If the clammers are clamming then I'm swimming. As soon as the water hits 60 degrees F I'm in. I swim until mid October. I thought I was doing He Man good until I saw this:
http://biankablog.blogspot.com/2009/11/cold-and-deep-too.html
Any petite Asian woman who takes a dip in Glouster Harbor in November is a woman to be recokoned with. I don't feel too bad as she also swims with the Polar Bears off Coney Island too!
But, I think there are more serious hazards than we really know too. A few years ago I was swimming in Hadley Harbor near Marthas Vineyard wearing a flowing oversized T shirt. Something came up from below and pinched me around the stomach. I just felt it never saw what did it. I thought it might have been an aggressive Bluefish. Fast foward the next year and there are news reports of a Great White which was trapped by the tides in a nearby cove. Seems the area is sometimes used as a nursery/birthing area for the Whites. Doh! The flowing T shirt must have looked like the mutalated carcus of a fish from the perspective of some baby Great White down below. At least I hope it was a baby Great White.

[Doodles]

Here's another to add to the list. If you spend any time in the Chesapeake Bay you need to be aware of this. We had a couple cases in the marina last year. One I know got it from a barnacle cut while scrubbing the bottom and it tooks months to cure. For another its been over a year and he is still not cured.

Infection from barnacle scratches

[SaltyMonkey]

Oh yeah, Doodles, and muscles too! Used to be Oysters in the Chesapeake when I was growin' up.

Chesapeake used to be clean...then filthy...the SAVE THE BAY helped...and now its bad again.

[SurferShane]

Pink Eye – hell I thought that was just a joke created by the Southpark crew?

[rebel heart]

Originally Posted by Doodles

Here's another to add to the list. If you spend any time in the Chesapeake Bay you need to be aware of this. We had a couple cases in the marina last year. One I know got it from a barnacle cut while scrubbing the bottom and it tooks months to cure. For another its been over a year and he is still not cured.

Infection from barnacle scratches

Yeah some of this stuff just sounds like people doing risky stuff. Whenever I dive I'm in a 7mm full suit, hood, booties, and kevlar gloves (they work for lobster too). Especially when working on a structure (like a boat) I'm really careful beyond even protective clothing. But a full suit will stop a barnacle.

[muskoka]

I've picked up a horrible disease which renders me nauseous, headachy and short tempered. It frequently occurs after a large 'sundowner' session...