There seems to be some confusion as to why Tributyl Tin based antifoulings are presently OK for big ships but not ok for us. My understanding is, that it was found that the vast majority of pleasure boats spend most of their time at their home mooring, where the TBT just keeps leaching into the immediate area. When the demise of marinelife was found to occur in marinas and dense mooring areas, samples were taken and TBT was found to be the culprit. Bi-valves were not quite so badly affected, they just poisoned anyone who ate one! Big ships, on the other hand, spend their lives on the move. Not to do so costs megabucks. so their TBT leaches over much wider areas in much lower concentrations. Having said that, the sooner TBT is banned completely, the better off we'll all be . It's very toxic stuff!! Cheers Glenn Williams Universal 36. Port Phillip, Australia

At 01:35 PM 04/16/2002 +1000, Glenn Williams wrote: > >Big ships, on the other hand, spend their lives on the move. Not to do so >costs megabucks. so their TBT leaches over much wider areas in much lower >concentrations. Around South Florida it turns out that the boats over 70 Ft. just sit at the docks and the smaller boats move around. If you argument is to believed, boats under 60 ft should be using CSC and the small boats should be using "the good stuff".( I just couldn't let this thread die a quite death) :-) ..jd Joe DellaFera / Margaret Murray 36' Prairie DC "Prairie Star" Pompano Beach, Fl.