Southern Tides June 2020

Page 30

The BitterEnd Coral Reefs, Boats, Art and ... Dung Beetles By Captain J. Gary "Gator" Hill

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’m sure many of you, including my editor, are scratching your heads over this one. The first few words in the header go together pretty well, but the last, well, we’ll get to that shortly. There is a correlation to all of these and a few more I will toss in along the way. The common thread, though a bit obscure, is repurposing. Our coral reefs are shrinking at an alarming rate, and as such, we’re trying to find ways to replace those natural formations. One such way is through repurposing. Off the coast of Georgia and South Carolina we’ve been creating reefs with all manner

Inset photo: A hermit crab “recycles” an empty channel whelk shell. Photo provided by Captain Gator

They offer used items, as well as new products such as overstock and discontinued parts from major boat manufacturers, sold at reduced prices. From fuel tanks to tuna towers they most likely have what you’re looking for. Boat yards make another great place to source parts, such as the St Mary’s Boat Yard. As owners do refits or as boats are salvaged by companies like TowBoat and SeaTow, entire boats or usable pieces are often sold, which translates to a great savings to you. Another source is Boats and Harbors, or what we refer to as the yellow sheets, due to the yellow paper it’s printed on. Another way to repurpose nautical items is to use them for art. I’ve seen dive helmets with painted face plates decorating their brass and bronze constructions. Old nets hanging from ceilings in restaurants, and port windows turned into shadow boxes. Hauser lines can be used to line walkways and parking lots. Ship’s wheels or even old captain’s desks can be used as office and home décor. There’s no end to the creative ways boat parts and pieces can be used. Going back to nature to wrap things up, consider Australia’s Bowerbirds, that used various colored items they “repurpose” into their nests to attract a mate. And what you’ve been waiting for, the dung beetle that repurposes … dung. But oddly enough they save the cattle industry about $300 million annually in cleanup and disposal costs and in the process reduce methane emissions which in turn helps curb greenhouse gasses. So I guess the old saying is true, one man’s (or beetle’s) junk is another man’s treasure.

of items: ships that have lived out their sea-worthiness, old military battle tanks, pieces of bridge structures, even New York subway cars. You name it, we’ve found a way to clean it up and make it an eco-safe base upon which coral formations can thrive. (See pages 28 - 29 for the latest deployment.) Many species, including octopi and hermit crabs, make their homes of cast off shells, jars, or anything else they can get their bodies into. A prime example of nature using discarded items no longer useful to their original purpose, in another way. Most of us have heard the acronym for Boat: Break Out Another Thousand, and anyone who’s owned one for any length of time can attest to that. When someone tells me they want to Till next time, Peace and Love, Shrimp buy a used boat and go cruising I tell them to try this simple and Grits … and wash your hands! experiment first, and if they like it to proceed. Go to a salvage yard and buy an old car; make sure it has a sunroof. Then drive cross-country while standing up through the sunroof and throw out hundred dollars bills along the way. To make it more like cruising, do it in the worst possible weather. I’m kidding, of course, but any boat owner will tell you, parts and maintenance are a must and nothing is cheap on a boat. So repurposing old parts becomes a very viable and useful practice. Places like Marine Connection Liquidators, in Ft. Pierce, Fla., and Email: TheOriginalCaptainGator@gmail.com Sailors Exchange, in St Augustine, have been around for years. 30 Southern Tides Magazine

June 2020


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