Swimming in the Broads?

[Janice]

Hi

When we were at the broads last week we lost our mop overboard, it fell in and then sunk. Mike said that it was a ploy by me to get out of mopping the boat

[Oddfellow]

Swimming in the Broads is not advisable for many reasons. One is the danger unseen hazards and also desease.

 

The BA does not condone it at all and have leaflets advising against it.

 

Motor boats are not permitted to discharge black water into the Broads, but some yachts can. However, such rules don't apply to the fish, birds and mammals of the waterways

[sanderling]

Hi Jan

I don't think I would want to swim in the broads  but I have seen people swimming at the coltishal end, but the water is a lot clearer down there

and I thought I was illegal to have sea toilets fitted in broads boats unless you have another connected to a holding tank or chemical job,,, I may be wrong

 

        all the best Russell

[donnygeoff]

What I saw, on Breydon, I would never swim in the rivers or broads..

 

A cruiser dumping its load, it turned the water browner than usual....

 

Also, from another fred (behaviour on the broads) it is not just the fish, birds and mammals of the water ways that use them as toilets...

 

:Stinky

[Janice]

What a shame. I did notice that the waters tend to look a but murky but I thought it was the mud from the broads kicking up and making the water look unclean.

We have scuba dived in a cenote, fresh water, and if the fins brush the bottom it would cloud the water instantly and make it look unclean, once settled it was all clear again.

You won't catch me swimming in the broads now I know what I know, if you know what I mean.

Jan

[Janice]

Pollution wise, it sounds like it would be good to get it enforced somehow that it should be illegal to dump human waste or toxic waste in the broads if we want to protect it for the future.

Old cars without seat belts were exempt from the seat belt law however there is a strong case, I would think, to eliminate old type boats emptying bodily waste into the broads. I would not want to lose the heritage of the old boats as they are beautiful but there must be alternatives that they can adopt to deal with bodily waste without affecting the boats.

As a newbie to boating I probably don't know what I am talking about and my thoughts are based on the knowledge I have using logic from that.

Jan

[Janice]

There's obviously less going into the broads now if hire boats were altered in the 70's which is good and probably why we can still boat around in mostly river water and not sewerage.

It sounds like there is a very small proportion of boats that have sea toilets then?

I wonder if the Broads Authority have any statistics that they can offer on boats that are using the Broads with sea toilets still? It would be interesting if a calculation could be done with that information along with any current info on the water quality to see where the broads will be in day 10-20 years pollution wise. Maybe that would be the leverage to get the law enforced.

Jan

[MauriceMynah]

This subject crops up on the other forums too from time to time, and usually leads to "tears before bedtime".

In truth, the amount of "Human waste" that goes into the broads now is minimal, and Mother nature is well equipped to deal with it.

Would I swim in the broads? NO, but that has more to do with Weils desease.

As far as pollution goes, I think that washing up liquid is the greater threat, though again, thus far Mother nature seem to be coping pretty well.

[marshman]

I am not sure whether any motor cruisers discharge - with possibly a very few historic ones being an exception.. As far as the remark by Donnygeoff is concerned, it must have been a very unusual occurrence and from a larger ocean going  boat as no Broadland cruiser has that facility to pump out their own tanks. Even so my guess was it would be silt..

 

It is not feasible for the smaller sailing boats to fit tanks - go on a Hunters boat and you will see why!! I personally do not see the so limited numbers being a problem and I doubt even the human waste "emissions" are measurable.

 

Don't forget, water quality wise the Broads are the cleanest they have been for many many years and there is plenty of evidence to support this - white water lilies for example now grow here and they do not tolerate "dirty" water - the yellows do more so!! But be much more concerned about phosphates being in the water from field and agriculture run off and from out of the pipes of many local sewage works - now that is an issue!!

 

Swimming - I don't think you would come to any harm but from your posts I doubt you will even consider it!!!

[donnygeoff]

Hi Marshman,

It was from a private cruiser, they went from Berney across Breydon, when they got near the lift bridge, about 2-300 yards in front  they did a U turn with a brown (oil slick) trailing the boat, then went back towards Berney.

 

[ranworthbreeze]

I agree it is the outlets that discharge into the rivers that pose the greatest threat to the quality of the water.

Take for example the sewage outlet near the Norwich bypass bridge near Thorpe, if the wind is in the wrong direction you know by the smell and the colour of the water.

Weils is an issue and isn't there a problem with the floating weed we get on the Broads.

Regards

Alan

[Janice]

 

Don't forget, water quality wise the Broads are the cleanest they have been for many many years and there is plenty of evidence to support this - white water lilies for example now grow here and they do not tolerate "dirty" water - the yellows do more so!!

That's good to hear., I'll keep an eye out to see the water lilies.

Jan

[MauriceMynah]

Whatever you do, DO NOT SWIM where the white water lilies have little brown stains 

[Janice]

Be assured......., I will only be swimming in it if I fall in, now I know what I know.

Jan

[loribear]

hi jan , i agree with everyone else, i would not swim in the broads, you don't know what's below the water level, a relative of ours years ago dived into the water on one of the broads & gashed his leg quite badly & had to go to hospital, luckily my mum was a nurse & knew what to do, it can be quite a dangerous place to swim, & NO i definitely would'nt swim in the broads, lori

[ExUserGone]

There are very few boats on the broads these days with sea toilets and as has been said before mother nature can cope with it and very quickly too, tipping portapotties over the side is far more harmful due to the chemicals used, the problem with banning sea toilets altogether is that the broads is a tidal haven with sea access and many sea going boats only have sea toilets.

Farm chemicals will be a much bigger problem but is very hard to avoid.

I have a sea toilet fitted with options of direct discharge or holding tank, also tank has option of pump out of manual pumped direct discharge, original fitment was just direct discharge sea toilet.

[littlesprite]

Swimming used to be a common practice back in the 50's and 60's and I have to admit to doing it, wouldn't fancy it now though.

[MauriceMynah]

I used to have a sea toilet on the river Great Ouse, but then the S**t hit the fen.

[senator]

The tidal nature of the Broads means that Sea Toilets are allowed, much the same as the tidal Thames and as far as I know all other tidal waters in the UK.

 

No doubt Holding tanks on Hire boats will have made a difference to water quality and it will be a very small proportion of private boats that don't have a holding tank fitted if they spend most of their time on the river.

 

While holding tanks are not mandatory I have a feeling that emptying them into the water is not allowed until you are a certain distance offshore, purely from memory I think that is 2 miles. If the private boat on Breydon was discharging tanks then that may well have been illegal. If however it was just someone on the lav after a nasty curry the night before that is fine.

[Brian]

When I was a lad, we swam in Wroxham Broad, over the far side it had a sandy bottom and was only a few feet deep.

We lowered anchor on the old Broom Classic12 speed boat and swam about on the very hot days of summer.

The water was very clear, you could see the sandy bottom.

We are talking over 20 years ago

[Janice]

Those were the days, shame its not like that now.  I wonder why the boats who say they are too small to have pump loos can thave the porta loos, I looked them up on Ebay and they can be quite small and quite cheap?

[SueH]

Hi

 

I think that part of the problem with caravan type loos is where to empty them.  I remember the public toilets at Womack Water had a sign up saying not to.

 

The chemicals might have some affect on the septic tanks in some of the more remote areas.  

 

Not quite as easy as using a pump out I think .............

 

SueH

[ExUserGone]

 

I used to have a sea toilet on the river Great Ouse, but then the S**t hit the fen.

:grin:

 

The chemicals in a portapotti will certainly kill off the beneficial bugs in a septic tank making it smell a lot worse, and do much more damage when dumped in the river as it must be very tempting to do.

Back on the gt.ouse and nene I used to find a portapotti tank with some torn up loo roll and blue veg dye could soon get the brats out of a lock pen when they were swimming in it.......

[10B]

Salhouse Broad 1973, there was only 2 tur** floating, and I was one of them.

 

Memoooooory's la la la!!!

[easyrider]

Senator I've not long come off the Port of London Authority website as I'm considering putting my boat on the Thames and it stated on there that sewage is not allowed to be released into the Thames. I don't know if this is a new law or not though.