Fertiliser bags on Rayong beach cause concern

[Lite Beer]

Fertiliser bags on Rayong beach cause concern
The Sunday Nation

RAYONG: -- A total of 20,000 empty fertiliser and animal-feed bags washed ashore on Mae Ramphueng Beach in Rayong's Muang district, prompting local volunteers to clean the affected area yesterday, amid fears it could affect tourism and possibly harm people exposed to dirty seawater.

The bags, with capacity ranging from 20-50 kilograms, were scattered over a 5-kilometre stretch of this popular beach, especially on Lan Hin Khao and the beachfront of Royal Hotel Rayong.

Beachside hotel and restaurant operators and local fishermen collected the bags for the authorities to dispose of later.

Fisherman Thavorn Imphrom said the sacks had showed up since Friday evening and suspected the bags were carelessly dumped in the sea by some contractor or fishing boat.

Khao Laem Ya-Koh Samet National Park chief Sumet Saithong said he had filed a police complaint, reported the incident to Rayong Governor Thani Samartkij and the National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department and submitted some of the bags for testing to the authority, to see if they had toxic content.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Fertiliser-bags-on-Rayong-beach-cause-concern-30244287.html

-- The Nation 2014-09-28

[ClutchClark]

"Fisherman Thavorn Imphrom said the sacks had showed up since Friday evening and suspected the bags were carelessly dumped in the sea by some contractor or fishing boat."

So the implication is that an agricultural business used all 20K of these bags and rather than pay landfill fees they instead contracted to have them dumped off-shore?

I suppose we should just be thankful they didn't choose to burn them.

Do the Thai not yet understand that without clean beaches they have no enticement for tourism?

[chooka]

Almost every story about Thailand has this line in it "amid fears it could affect tourism" The loss baht seems to be their greatest concern in life more important than life or the environment.

[Tatsujin]

Almost every story about Thailand has this line in it "amid fears it could affect tourism" The loss baht seems to be their greatest concern in life more important than life or the environment.

Yeah, such concerns for the tourist numbers, yet they only account for 6.4% (supposedly) of GDP which has got to be wildly inaccurate.

[shirtless]

Tourism has already been affected this is simply just another example of greed, I was at Jomtien beach and it was disgusting, there is a big world out there and people are already finding other tourist destinations.

[Chang_paarp]

Are they sure the bags were dumped locally? Maybe they were part of the rubbish dumped in Pattaya that has just moved down the coast.

[daiwill60]

My theory is that most of the rubbish washed up on the south facing shores of the gulf actually originate in BKK or somewhere nearby or it is actually shipped out into the gulf by ship in an effort to dump BKK rubbish somewhere else other than the already overfilled landfill sites such as the one at Samut Prakarn.

This then washes outinto the gulf only to be pushed back by incoming tides onto the south facing shorelines further down the coast, such as Rayong.

If you go to the naval beach at Had SamaeSon near Sattahip, you do not see anywhere near this amount of rubbish on the beach which is a west facing beach.

[craigt3365]

I saw a bunch today south of NaJomtien on the beach. But nothing unusual, lots of trash normally on that stretch of beach.

[ClutchClark]

Did any of the bags look to be bundled together? Had they been tightly packed and tied then their density should have resulted in their sinking.

Instead its as if they were pushed overboard in loose piles. That would be more the result of a barge rather than a boat with sidewall, wouldn't you think?

20,000 bags?

The sheer quantity would suggest a very large commercial operation. The original consumer of the contents of these bags should not be entirely impossible to locate. What type of ag-business would depend on the specific fertilizer ratios of the bags? What type of livestock feed was it? Contacting the various wholesale suppliers of the brands found and researching their invoices, etc would help even more.

These are all investigative steps that would be taken if this occurred in a First World country. The mentality of so many under-developed nations is so incredulous one can only be thankful they do are not building nuclear power plants. They would be dumping spent fuel rods into the ocean without a care.

Kudos to everyone that pitched in to clean up the mess. I see many beaches where the locals don't voluntarily clean up anything on the beach.

Edited September 28, 2014 by ClutchClark

[daoyai]

My theory, judging by the worn and sun bleached state of the bags is they were reused as sand bags on some eroding beach eventually breaking apart and washed to sea there to drift along the bottom eventually to wash ashore on the sunny beaches of Rayong

[quandow]

Gawd, some jokes just write themselves!

[Thai at Heart]

As though this would effect anyone's impression of the beaches in Rayong anyway.

[ClutchClark]

My theory, judging by the worn and sun bleached state of the bags is they were reused as sand bags on some eroding beach eventually breaking apart and washed to sea there to drift along the bottom eventually to wash ashore on the sunny beaches of Rayong

Your tongue-in-cheek suggestion likely has some merit. That was likely the bags intended purpose.

[attrayant]

Either that or somebody's making one huge bomb.

[ableguy]

Almost every story about Thailand has this line in it "amid fears it could affect tourism" The loss baht seems to be their greatest concern in life more important than life or the environment.

YES the only people who do not know this are the Thais themselves.

[monkeycountry]

Does anyone care to find out who dumped the bags and punish them? 1 bag may be hard to trace, but 20,000 could be possible.

[baneko]

The fish get fed and will grow bigger..