Sea of Sludge

Our lovely sea and wonderful beaches, look better, much better, from a distance. Upon getting a little close, you might want to put a clip on your nose at some hours of the day and as to bathing.... or eating fresh sea fish, better think twice.

I often feel powerless, in face of the slow poisoning of the sea. Although there are different laws against it, these are rarely and only partially applied. Fines are ridiculously low, so it's cheaper to pay a fine now and then, than to actually solve the problem.
In Tel Aviv and Jaffa the problem is accute. My fishermen friends tell me many fish have completely disappeared and this has nothing to do with over-fishing.
If it's bad for the fish it's bad for us. The strange thing is, that there actually are solutions available. It is absolutely unnecessary to poison the sea. Sewage can be dealt with in many ways. Some might look expensive on the short run, however, on the long run, killing off the sea is far more expensive.
On the short run there obvioulsy appear to be certain conflicts of interest, but do we really want to tell our future grandchildren that once upon i time you could go swimming in the sea and there were real fish in it?

So, some of you people, my readers, have contacted me over time saying they want to do something about it. This is your chance:

The coming meeting of Tel Aviv's "Green Forum" will take place on February 13th at 19.00 at the offices of the Society for the Protection of Nature at 85 Nahalat Benyamin Street in Tel Aviv. the meeting will be dedicated to our beaches and what we want (and do not want).
The ideas and wishes expressed during the meeting will form the basis for an alternative plan.

It really depends on us.



And for a little more information about what's happening to our beaches and water quality:
article by Karin Kloosterman