environmental stewardship – Aquarius-Systems

April 2026 Newsletter

Wed, 08 Jul 2026 18:36:32 +0000

Clean Water Starts With Everyday Actions

A Message from Our Leader: Earth Day

Aquatic Plants Keep Water Healthy

Aquatic Plants Help Filter Water

Are All Invasive Species Bad?

Earth Day Starts with Clean Water

Upcoming Conferences

Wisconsin Lakes & Rivers Annual Convention
Michigan Lakes & Streams Association 65th Annual Conference
New York State Federation of Lake Associations 44th Annual Conference
Maine Lakes Annual Conference
Aquarius Systems Aquatic Weed Harvesting Safety & Maintenance Seminar

January 2026 Newsletter

Wed, 08 Jul 2026 17:58:32 +0000

Starting 2026 with Healthier Waterways

A Message from Our Leader: Small, Consistent Changes can Improve Water Quality

Better Choices for Cleaner Waterways

How Lake Washington Improved Its Water

Upcoming Conferences

Midwest Aquatic Plant Management Society 46th Annual Conference
Clean Rivers, Clean Lake 21st Annual Conference
Illinois Lake Management Association Annual Conference
Pennsylvania Lake Management Society 36th Annual Conference

Thousands of Golf Balls Removed From Monterey Bay Raise Concerns About Marine Pollution

Tue, 26 Feb 2019 19:37:51 +0000

Alex Weber, a junior at Carmel High School in California, and her friend Jack Johnston had repeatedly come across large numbers of golf balls on the ocean floor while snorkeling in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary near the town of Carmel-by-the-Sea.

As environmentally conscious teens, they started removing golf balls from the water, one by one. By the time Alex contacted me, they had retrieved over 10,000 golf balls – more than half a ton.

Alex, her friends and her father paddled, dove, heaved and hauled. By mid-2018 the results were startling: They had collected nearly 40,000 golf balls from three sites near coastal golf courses: Cypress Point, Pebble Beach and the Carmel River Mouth. And following Alex’s encouragement, Pebble Beach employees started to retrieve golf balls from beaches next to their course, amassing more than 10,000 additional balls.

Modern golf balls are made of a polyurethane elastomer shell and a synthetic rubber core. Manufacturers add zinc oxide, zinc acrylate and benzoyl peroxide to the solid core for flexibility and durability. These substances are also acutely toxic to marine life.

When golf balls are hit into the ocean, they immediately sink to the bottom. No ill effects on local wildlife have been documented to date from exposure to golf balls. But as the balls degrade and fragment at sea, they may leach chemicals and microplastics into the water or sediments. Moreover, if the balls break into small fragments, fish, birds or other animals could ingest them.