No Smoking on the pier?

Yesterday while several of us were taking a break from the heat, someone (not me) started talking about how people have no respect for our pier or their fellow fishermen/women.
What started the conversation was the enormous amount of cigarette butts wedged between the boards on the deck. And god only knows how many butts are tossed in the water.

Later in the afternoon when I relocated to the shallows for another look at the pets, someone else (not me) brought up the exact same subject. Being that it was brought up twice in the same day by two different and the fishing is a tad slow and we need some excitement, here is the question:
Should smoking be banned on the pier?

NOTE: This is not an official poll, just curiosity.

how you going to burn the braided lines?? I don't care one way or the other ....I am not a smoker

maybe ticket the offenders for littering, but with all the other trash people let fly, that might be hard to do too....with trash cans all over the place I can't see why there are some sooooo lazy

I don't really care, in the end ya might as well bang your head on the railing... Watch out for the rotten bait and pelican crap.
I don't smoke any more, people smoking doesn't bother me, litter is litter and there is plenty of it.
Butts just don't get picked up and don't readily decompose or blow away, so they accumulate and are an eyesore.
Smoking bans in public open air areas are in my opinion, ridiculous.
Either enforce the litter laws or don't... And they can't.

Idiots are everywhere, not just someone leaving their butts laying around, leaving bull reds on the deck to rot, tourists stepping over the red line, unattended/unsupervised children running amuck, cutting bait and leaving it on the rails, etc. When you have that many people in one spot, there will always be a mix of the good the bad and the ugly.

This should be a good one!

Popcorn anyone?

If they would look into putting the cigarette disposal containers in different places throughout the pier I think it would help a bit, but I doubt it would solve the problem completely. The last time I was out there I noticed lots of trash everywhere. This included everything from cigarette butts to cans, paper and fishing tackle. One of my big pet peeves as fat as trash in general goes is the disposal of old fishing tackle. I can't count the number of times I have had to dig a hook out of my flip flops, or untangle my self out of old fishing line someone just discarded onto the ground rather than the trash receptacle that was 5 feet from them. It's going to be a continuing problem without some of the regulars taking the initiative to pickup trash, or correcting someone who is just throwing trash onto the pier. If we don't do something about the problem proactively, the jewel of the Alabama gulf coast is going to become the turd of the southeast. Yes there are people employed to do the job, but with our help it will lessen the work load on them and free them up to do things such as clean the bathroom at the T.

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I don't think they should be banned, but I absolutely believe there should be a LARGE fine for not disposing of them properly. (note, this is coming from a non-smoker)

I smoke... a LOT. I keep a can for butts and a bag for trash right on my pier cart, so I can say I've never littered the pier or the ocean. Ok, I've lost quite a few pieces of shiny plastic and metal... but that is NOT officially littering.

I voted no thank you...

I retired from smoking 2 years ago but I still think smokers should have rights as do the rest of us so no don't take that away also, encourage them to put the butts where they belong.

I'm ambivalent on this one. I don't particularly like someone smoking upwind of me, especially rancid smelling cigars, but I don't think it's fair to tell folks they can' smoke outdoors. The litter factor is another matter, and lots of smokers just don't think anything of flipping their butts down whenever and wherever they finish. They never decompose and they're hard to clean up. I quit smoking over 20 years ago, and I was as guilty as anybody of inconsideration and improper butt disposal, but that doesn't mean I don't like it now.

Got to agree with Jeb, if they are going to allow it, a few smoking receptacles would be helpful. (Especially on the octi) Personally though, I hate it when its crowded and a guy walks up and starts smoking like a chimney blowing their smoke all over you. That just makes me want it outlawed completely on the octi, but its really only on the really crowded days that it bothers me. If anything I would just want it banned on the octi and I'm sure no one will care when its not crowded out there. Note too, I'm an asthmatic so its more than just me nitpicking.

FYI on the Cigarette Butt Receptacles. They were placed on the pier a few weeks ago at the mid and on the octi.
I don't mind picking up cups, bottles, sabiki packaging, dead fish, hooks, discarded line and other misc. trash on the deck. I draw the line at BUTTS!

Trolley fishing upwind up current ,smoking down wind:congratulatory:

Smoking, well I hate it. It took my Dad from us long before he shoulda went, I hate cigarettes, damn them nasty cancer sticks to hell. My kids will never know their grandfather because of them addictive F'in things.
BUT, that said, I cant see a smoking ban outside in the open air. In enclosed spaces, yes, I dont want to suck in anyones second hand smoke in an enclosed space. But a ban on the pier, no.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by the original pier pest

If they would look into putting the cigarette disposal containers in different places throughout the pier I think it would help a bit, but I doubt it would solve the problem completely. The last time I was out there I noticed lots of trash everywhere. This included everything from cigarette butts to cans, paper and fishing tackle. One of my big pet peeves as fat as trash in general goes is the disposal of old fishing tackle. I can't count the number of times I have had to dig a hook out of my flip flops, or untangle my self out of old fishing line someone just discarded onto the ground rather than the trash receptacle that was 5 feet from them. It's going to be a continuing problem without some of the regulars taking the initiative to pickup trash, or correcting someone who is just throwing trash onto the pier. If we don't do something about the problem proactively, the jewel of the Alabama gulf coast is going to become the turd of the southeast. Yes there are people employed to do the job, but with our help it will lessen the work load on them and free them up to do things such as clean the bathroom at the T.

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I agree 100% with you Jeb. I had hobble from the cleaning stations to my car then drive to urgent care then hobble inside to get a hook removed from my foot. Someone had just strewn a piece of line with a hook attached to it on the deck. I just happens to be the lucky person to get wrapped up in it and stuck.

Was fishing really that bad that this is all you had to do? Next topic please!!!!

Fascinating what comes up when the fishing is poor!
Like others I really don't care very much one way or the other.
It does seem though that as a society we already got plenty enough rules to follow and most of them are there because there is an overall lack of common sense.
That and the fact that some people are just plain a$$ pigs.
Wonder what the beach people do with their butts? And the boaters?

I know exactly what beach and boat people do with their butts; it's just harder to see the evidence than where they're concentrated on a wood floor.

I am a smoker, but when I am on the pier I do not smoke while on the rail, when i sling a bait off ill go set my rod down and walk away from the crowds and smoke, and the butt goes in my pocket of in the trash..... you should see what comes outa my dryer lol

I feel your pain Carl, lost my grandfather to cancer as well, from you guesses it, from smoking. It also nearly killed my mother when she got sick, and she was forced to quit or face certain death from blood clots. My father went cold turkey with her, and its been 2 years now. I fully respect peoples decision to smoke and do what ever they want, I just want them to realize that it can and will have consequences on day, and it may not be you who will be left to deal with it.