The Harbor Column -- Mike Whitehead

Ahoy.

I enjoy boating the uncongested waters this time of year. I have

mentioned in previous columns that winter and spring can be the best

boating times if you just keep an eye on the weather for an approaching

storm. Recently, I cruised over to Avalon on Santa Catalina Island for

lunch and encountered flat seas, no wind and skies so crystal clear that

we could see the snowcapped San Gabriel Mountains, where people were no

doubt skiing. When we arrived at Avalon, the mooring can field was vacant

and the harbor patrol officer gave us an easy mooring to pickup for a

couple of hours.

If you have not been to Avalon recently, the main pier is under major

refurbishment and is not accessible for the dinghy dock or shore boats.

The shore boats now dock at the ferry landing’s metal docks on the south

point of the harbor. Cruising over this time of the year, keep your eyes

open for the lobster floats, whales and, as mentioned, a change in the

weather. While we were in Avalon, we spent a lovely day eating lunch and

feeding the ducks.

OK, so we did not feed the ducks, but I have received many comments

from you about this issue. You probably know that the Newport Beach City

Council has enacted a new duck (bird) feeding ordinance for the harbor

and, believe me, I am aware of the pollution that a large flock can dump

into the waters. I agree with some of you who stated that just one sewer

line break contributes more pollutants into the harbor than all the

ducks’ fecal matter combined for a year. Granted, I will give you that

statistic without much research, however, the ducks are a daily source of

pollutants. To clean up Newport Harbor, we must look at the whole pie

chart of where the pollution comes from and I believe allocate adequate

resources according to the percentage shown in the chart. In other words,

if storm water runoff is more than 90% and, say, ducks are less than 1%,

then is it apparent where to initially help our harbor.

Ducks walk funny and the many species that visit our harbor are

beautiful swimming along the water. Kids like ducks and many have been

named after the famous Donald Duck. However, this law was necessary not

to punish the kids but because of a few people overfeeding the birds,

especially in areas such as the Grand Canal separating Balboa Island and

Little Balboa Island.

First, feeding wildlife is a poor habit that in the long run hurts the

wildlife -- not only ducks in the harbor, but think of the fearless bears

attracted to picnic baskets in Yellowstone Park. The humanizing of the

ducks by feeding is harmful to their diet, disrupts their annual

migratory patterns and helps spread diseases among the flock.

I read the city’s report that each duck dropping can contain millions

of colony-forming fecal coliform bacteria and that their droppings can

cause human illness, including cercarial dermatitis, histoplasmosis,

tularemia, cryptosporidiosis, salmonellosis, campylobacteriosis,

psittacosis, West Nile encephalitis and influenza. I’ll have to get my

Merck Manual from the bookshelf to read about these diseases, but just

the names are frightening. Most state, federal and private wildlife

agencies do not want anyone feeding the ducks, especially with day old

stale white bread that has no nutritional value.

I will give the city credit because the first step is to educate the

public by letting them know that you are really doing the ducks more harm

than good when you feed them. This is similar to the approach taken to

stop people from feeding the sea lions in the harbor. The primary

enforcement will be against the obvious abusers with grocery bags full of

bread, so the occasional cracker will not equate into an appearance

before the duck-feeding judge with your high-priced, duck-feeding lawyer

to keep you out from behind bars.

***

Tip of the week is top off your boat’s fuel tanks while sitting idle

during the weather. Luckily in most Southern California harbors, we do

not have to completely winterize our boats to prevent damage from

freezing. However, we need to remember condensation with the warm days

and cold nights will create water in your fuel. The warm air holds more

moisture and then as the temperature drops, the air holds less moisture

that falls out in your tanks repeatedly day after day. So by keeping your

tanks topped off decreases the volume of air inside the tanks, and the

little moisture that enters is negligible per volume.

Safe voyages.

* MIKE WHITEHEAD is the Pilot’s boating and harbor columnist. Send him

your harbor and marine-related thoughts and story suggestions via e-mail

to o7 [email protected] or o7 https://www.BoathouseTV.comf7 .