MIKE WHITEHEAD -- The Harbor Column

Ahoy.

The other day I was in Oceanside having lunch with Pete Gray, the

famous radio personality who co-hosts the “Let’s Talk Hook Up” fishing

talk show, and I told him about the marlin I saw jumping a few miles off

Catalina Island that I mentioned in last week’s column. Pete mentioned

that all the indicators are pointing to an excellent season even a bit

early in our local waters, and other species are here.

In 1993, Pete started “Let’s Talk Hook Up,” which is now one of the

most popular live call-in fishing radio shows in Southern California. It

makes me feel at home when I voyage across the Pacific to Hawaii and I

can hear the show on the single-side band radio more than a thousand

miles off the coast, even though I can’t call in to give my fish report

of, what’s usually, Mahi Mahi. In Newport Harbor, you can listen to Pete

and his co-host, Marty Milner, who you might remember from the television

shows “Route 66” and “ADAM 12,” every Saturday and Sunday mornings on

XTRA Sports 690 AM (o7 https://www.hookup690.comf7 ).

***

I have received numerous phone calls and a copy of a letter from

Newport Beach Mayor Gary Adams addressed to our U.S. representatives in

opposition to a new bill, HR 1730, which is being introduced and relates

to boats’ marine sanitation devices aboard vessels and discharge of the

devices in harbors.

Our harbor, as well as other harbors, is classified as “no discharge

zones,” which means you cannot discharge waste (sewage) into the harbor

or the ocean waters within three nautical miles of any coastline

(mainland or island). The federal Clean Water Act is the piece of

legislation that helps enforce no discharge. HR 1730 would authorize

dumping the holding tanks from certain marine sanitation devices (as

basic as an MSD Type 1) into the harbor. This poorly written bill by

someone who appears to know nothing about boats’ holding tanks or harbor

water quality states that by simply treating the fecal coliform bacteria

in the tanks to a certain level makes it acceptable to introduce into our

harbor.

What Rep. Jim Saxton (R-N.J.) has forgot is that all the other

pathogens, parasites and viruses that are contained in the tank will be

introduced into the harbor’s water. Considering some of the

beach-contaminated warnings at the Harbor Department beach, the Dunes,

the Rhine Channel and the area back by Newport Island, it seems to me

that we need less discharge, not more. To clarify that last sentence, we

need less discharge from all sources, such as urban runoff, industrial,

non-point source and sewer overflows, not just boats, which are actually

a very small percentage.

There is one reason boats are a very small percentage -- because of

the “no discharge” law in place that is working. You allow boaters to

discharge and logic will dictate that the overall health of the bay will

suffer, and the thousands of dollars from the Department of Boating &

Waters to install pump-out stations will be wasted (no pun intended). As

a quick side note, the Harbor Department beach is my favorite harbor

beach to take my two daughters.

***

Last year, more than 3,500 people came to the Newport Harbor Nautical

Museum to tour the Navy Seal’s vessel, the U.S.S. Zephyr. The U.S.S.

Zephyr is visiting the museum again this week and the public tours will

be on Saturday and Sunday between the hours of 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. My

advice to visitors is come early, visit the museum while you are there

and remember it will be hot and sunny so be prepared for being outdoors

in the heat.

***

In closing, I am sad that Orange Coast College lost one of its

training vessels on the voyage back from Hawaii after completing the

Transpac. One thing those students and crew members will never forget is

how helpless one can feel in the middle of the Pacific. I always wonder

if my pre-voyage abandon ship planning will save all of my crew, so my

captain’s hat is off to OCC for getting the people off the vessel in lieu

of risking lives trying to save the sailboat, especially that far off

shore -- a very smart decision.

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 Mike@BoathouseTV.comf7 or o7 https://www.BoathouseTV.comf7 .