Fish Bellies full of cigarette butts

[Accurate weld]

Well here we go again another example of
going too far...

Article that appeared in the Naples Daily News on the State and Local page, Sunday September 22, 2002

The article written by Cathy Zollo,
crzollo@naplesnews.com.

Title Headline, Smokeing and littering worst of habits, cleanup crews find...

Executive director of Keep Collier Beautifull CHER COMPTON, goes on to explain
how volenteers gather together in an effort to clean up the trash left by beach goers
and boaters alike. Dont have a problem with that, a very tough job to say the least.
I admire the effort, time and detication it takes to organize such an endevour on a grand scale.

The article goes on to report about the people gathered on the weekend from one end of Collier County to the other in one enormous effort to clean the beaches of debris and an exceptional amount of cigarette butts. The emphsis on cigarette
butts..

Personally im not a smoker and ill be the first one to move away from smokers around me or ask politely that they not smoke

Heres the kicker...

Quote " In its 17th year, the cleanup clears tons of debris from coastlines and seeks to raise awaerness about the cumlative effects of liter on marine life. Fishing line and plastics strangle birds and turtles,
" but also there have been large fish cut open, and they,ve got bellies full of cigarette butts." Compton said.

The article goes on to tell how divers where ineffective because of the murky waters created by Isadore...

OK... HOLD ON A MOMENT HERE...

" LARGE FISH WITH BELLIES FULL OF CIGARETTE BUTTS...."


Who the hell is this woman kidding...
are the readers of this crap completely
stupid. **** im going out right now with a
carton of cigarettes and load up on fish...
This is the greatest bait ever, Right !!!
It would be just my luck all the fish have
nicoteen patches handed out by fish and game
wildlife officers...

This woman Cher Compton is just another example of going to far...
Oh yes the ultimate in TREE HUGGER..
Tell your story lady but dont create
such garbage as to have us believe fish will eat cigarette butts.....

At the end of the article a phone number of the Keep Collier Beautifull is printed. 239- 352-4344... What do you say we call her and tell her what we think of her statement....

I called her and at the end of the message she gave her cell phone number.

Miss Cher Compton told me one of the tree hugger ocean groups told her 2 years ago
they found a skark belly full of cigarette
butts.... IMAGINE THAT....

when i asked her to prove her statement
of fish bellies full of cigarette butts,
some documented proof she just hung up on me
went back to get her cell number but she has since then removed her cell number..

IMAGINE THAT....

Tom Accurate Towers naples

Accuweld

[ceylon]

FWIW, I just emailed them this:

Sirs:

I am concerned that the Naples Daily News seems to have either failed to exercise a reasonable degree of journalistic skepticism or has been outright duped in its reporting of volumes of cigarette butts in the stomachs of large fish.

In the article written by Ms. Zollo, Cher Compton, executive Director of "Keep Collier Beautiful" was quoted as follows:

"Fishing line and plastics strangle birds and turtles, "but also there have been large fish cut open, and they've got bellies full of cigarette butts," Compton said. "

Does Ms. Compton have the slightest bit of factual evidence to back up this completely unbelievable assertion? Or has Ms. Zollo been duped into propagating one more "urban myth" that is so foolish on the face of it that it will backfire and give ammunition to those who would belittle the need to preserve our nations' beaches and waterways?

The blind acceptance of statements such as this goes a long way toward eroding confidence in your reporting standards. I find it hard to accept that anyone with a normal sense of curiosity, a trait that should be highly developed in any reporter, would not immediately be interested in obtaining photographs or other documentation of this phenomena. How Ms. Zollo allowed this zinger to get by her is beyond my comprehension.

Regards:
Michael H. Horrell

[gaffmaster]

So how do you think those guys are getting the fish to eat all them butts anyhow, maybe mixing the butts into their chum do give it a little more volume? Maybe dragging butt spreader bars W/Marlboro light daisy chains.Either way I'm sure it's another tobacco companies' conspiracy and another way for the lawyers to get richer.
gm

[t.ray]

I don't smoke, but if if will help me catch more fish!!!! maybe i will take up smoking

Tony
"LuredAway"
The only person that doesn't make a mistake is a person that doesn't do anything

[trouty]

I seen it wif my own eyes.

Much as I hate to admit it, I've sen it and more than once. Not saltwater fish mind you - but trout.

Used to keep the odd trout for clients who wanted one or two for a feed after a tour so I got the "pleasure" of cleaning them.

I've found 3 or 4 ciggy butts over the years, for some reason trout do like to eat ciggy butts as stupid as that might seem. (stupid fish...sometimes).

Course - I've found other dumb stuff too - like a small piece a broken bottle glass (worn smooth by water action), the odd hook, sinker, swivel things you'd expect, ring pulls from when softdrink/beer cans used to have the tear out throw away ones.....lottsa wattle seed pods in one fish...always a surprise when it happens tho.

Just gotta gut enough fish guys - you'll find ya junk, tho I have to admit I don't find much in ocean fish stomachs curiously.

Go easy on the lady - she may just prove you wrong!

Cheers!

[MarkA]

Doods...

Kings prefer Camels.. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_eek.gif[/img]

Just a little tip from someone who knows.

MArk

[rcs1039]

I have never had any luck with fishing, I think I will try putting a butt on a hook and throw it in. There are plenty of them on the beaches we go to. My kids and myself always enjoy playing in the sand with all the butts on the beach. I like it also when they float by in the water when we are swimming. If you smoke you don't see the problem, if you don't smoke it is easy to see.

[DMC]

I once caught a jewfish that was 18 feet long and it had a cigarette machine in its belly. Funny thing was it still had all the cigarettes in it, all still sealed up in the plastic. Sold all the cigarettes to my buddies. I think I made about $500.00 on the smokes and about $1200.00 on the fish. If my memory serves me correctly I caught that fish near Viceroy Reef.

Maybe I should go into journalism.
Ah whats that womans name on the west coast of Florida?


DMC

[Accurate weld]

Ceylon....

I think its wonderfull the letter to the naples daily news, This woman really has no idea of what shes talking about. Said she heard it from some ocean group.
I hope this woman doesn't run for any office here in Collier Co. she sure to screw up anything she touches...

Just for the record id like to know what
kind of cigatette each fish prefers, it would be helpfull knowing what butts to use on your hook.

Catch you guys later..

Tom Accurate Towers naples

Accuweld

[tg]

A fine paper, eh Tom? This kind of crap is always in there. Makes you sick. By the way, I stopped by the shop last month (right before labor day) but missed you...all locked up. I'll try again next month.


Remember the Roar!

[Frank007]

Personally, I think the fish are smoking the cigarettes and swallowing the butts when done to avoid littering.

[LI Sound Grunt]

If you are going to use cigarette butts instead of Bunky or Mackeral butts, might I recommend...

Lucky Strikes

[tidester]

Yes, but how do they keep them lit underwater? Do they swallow them to keep them lit in their air bladders? Don't tell the press, they'll have a field day setting up tests in the Enquirer's marine biology lab!

Actually, I have another theory. I put my cigs out in a near empty soda or beer can. At the end of the day, I round up the trash for proper waste disposal.

Maybe one of my cans fell overboard and got swallowed by a fish? Surely, a 12 oz aluminum can has to upsets the poor fishes tummy, so he heaves it. The butts stay in the tummy to pad the scratches. Again, this is my theory. If any newspaper wants to print it they have to talk to my attorney about royalties first [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

1974 John Allmand Ticonderoga

[LI Sound Grunt]

You know that CT license plate that they cut out of the stomach of the shark in Jaws? That was my plate. It was on an old Ford Fairlane fell off the Greenport/New London Ferry.

Closest I got to getting in the movies.

[LI Sound Grunt]

Sorry Folks - we call it the Greenport Ferry on this side of the sound, but it really goes to Orient Point.

[still going]

so what if it isn't so there are way to many smokers throwing there butts out on the roads,waterways, every where littering is a real problem. i pick up some unreal trash in the canal behind my place. love to see people stop littering.

[PJ57]

I was out fishing with a buddy a couple weeks ago. He flicked his cig butt over board, and to our amazement something hit it on the surface...it had drifted a ways off, but be it panfish, pike or bass, it was hit and gone. Was going to hook a butt on and try, but then the nice little pike started banging our rapalas. Perhaps they like to smoke before they eat.

[Capt. Dan]

Oooops, double post.

[Capt. Dan]

Come on guys, don't let them pull the wool over your eyes!

Clearly the shark had cigarettes in his stomach from eating a fisherman who smoked! Now the sharks are addicted to cigarettes and the only way they can get theem is to eat fishermen who smoke. SO, for the tree hugging liberal, you are killing three birds with one stone.
1. Fewer smokers
2. Fewer fisherman
3. Saving fish by feeding the sharks fisherman (who have far less value to society than a free range fish.) The liberals should be dancing with glee. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

[RussH]

Of all of the many years I've been fishing I've never cleaned a fish that had a cigarette butt in it's stomach, however, that doesn't mean that it is OK to throw your butts (cigarette) overboard.

I'm a non-smoker and will speak my mind if necessary. A few years ago we had a Power Squadron meeting on a heavily polluted beach on Lake Erie. The topic was pollution and one of the Squaron members flicked his cigarette out in the water while we were talking about pollution. I interrupted the speaker and asked, "At what point did the American public start to believe that cigarette butts weren't pollution?" No offense to the smokers, but I could instantly tell who were the smokers and who wasn't by the reaction of those in the crowd.

I for one am sick of seeing cigarette butts thrown out windows of cars, I'm sick of seeing them piled up along the curbs of roads, I'm sick of smelling tobacco smoke when I'm out fishing enjoying the smells of the lake and nature. Why can't you smokers keep your butts inside of your cars, your boats, etc.??? At a traffic light last week the women in front of me threw her cigarette butt out of her car and the wind blew it on to my hood. I had to get out of the car to get it off before the heat made a mark in my paint. Or how about being behind someone that throws out their butt and you have your window down and it hits inside of your car and lands in your back seat! I can't be the only one this has happened to.

Have any of you heard of Cedar Point Amusement Park on Lake Erie? Guess why they have to hire almost a hundred workers a day to clean the park everyday? Guess what their #1 (90%) pollution product is? They estimate that they pick up 6,000 - 15,000 cigarette butts PER DAY! They have disposal points in the park for butts but obviously the majority of the smokers don't give a shit and just throw them on the ground. Do you think that the hundred or so workers a day they have to hire to keep the park clean and try to avoid a dangerous fire effects the ticket prices for everyone?

I for one am sick of seeing cigarette butts thrown into the streets and our waterways. Why is it OK to empty your butts from your ashtray in a parking lot??? If your a smoker I can bet that you will argue every one of my points, but I bet that is because you feel guilty because you've done the things that I've mentioned.

Sore subject with me...but I would welcome a challenge from anyone that wants to discuss it further.

Russ