To remove a pebble from a beach?

[Pigeonpoodle]

I saw this on another thread… Apparently “everyone knows that’s wrong!” I’ve very occasionally taken the odd interesting pebble as a momento. AIBU to have done that… What on earth could be the problem with it? One pebble amongst billions!

That completely depends on how many pebbles it takes to erode that section of coastline though doesn’t it? Maybe you’re on a section that’s already eroding due go pebble/ shell deficiency

there is no argument that our coastline isn’t eroding, so it’s not like it’s some abstract idea

There’s an average of 100m pebbles on a 1km beach. So if everyone in the UK took a stone once a year from ONE beach there would still be about 40m pebbles left on that one 1km stretch of beach.

And a few trillion pebbles on the other thousands of km of beach. Use your brain!!

A pebble? Seriously, this is what people can get worked up about?

The ‘laws’ are in place to stop wholesale scooping up of beach pebbles to sell (for gravel etc) not to stop little Katie taking home a pretty pebble she found on her family holiday and she’ll treasure. Again, engage brain.

Exactly

Yeah, no, sorry I'm not going to stop doing this or stop my kids from doing it either, for reasons others have laid out above. Ditto bringing a few pretty shells home from a beach that has millions.

As I said on the original thread, how many of the posters utterly aghast that someone would take a small pebble or shell from a beach, have ever taken a cruise or a ferry? How many work in industries that directly or indirectly impact on marine ecology? How many use end products stemming from aggressive agriculture.
Untwist your knickers. I am from a coastal area. Even now I’ll pick up detritus from the beach on occasion. I suspect that nearby nuclear/military activity, and the runoff from farms have a far greater impact on the wildlife and ecosystems. When they stop, I’ll stop lifting a couple of pebbles every few years.

I won't be stopping my kids from taking a shell or pebble home from the beach just like I did as a kid

Exactly this.

Also find it strange that people are ok with buying tonnes of pebbles that have been “legally” mined/ sourced for their gardens but are not ok with a child taking a few pebbles from the beach. They all come from the same place - the earth. One is clearly a much bigger threat to the ecosystem than the other but it’s ok because its licenced?

I agree with you esp rerun off from industry and agriculture but I don’t think anyone is agast, on either thread. It’s not a big deal.

She's trying to say that foraging bits and bobs from nature is natural human behaviour. Those buying crap in Dunelm etc are doing far more damage to the environment.

It's just insanity that the climate is currently collapsing, coral reefs have now mostly died, the ocean is full of plastic, and people are up in arms about someone picking up a pebble.

one of my all time favourite threads was about removing pebbles from beaches 😁

it was hilarious the drama (we shall be flooded because of such stupidity) and stepped up competitive outrage

here's hoping this one follows suit, but unlikely to be as entertaining as the original

In nature, I have typically followed the rule of "taking only memories and leaving only footprints". Sadly where we live we do often have to pick up trash around the lake too - but we take nothing that belongs there.

Yeah, I agree. I think it's to stop people from taking loads of pebbles (or gravel, or similar) for their gardens. It's just easier to make a law to ban it altogether.

I know you're not meant to take single little pebbles either. But I do it anyway. So sue me. The whole "but what if everyone did it?!" argument falls down the moment you actually start crunching numbers. There really are just THAT many pebbles.

I understand the principle but it's not like everyone who visits beaches takes one is it? It should be discouraged but let's be realistic. I often pick something up to look at then drop it further down the beach, may have confused some crabs.

Caring about pebbles has got nothing to do with where anyone shops

Can see the marches now with the shirts and placards.

Yes. That’s a VERY serious crime.

Yep. Some who has done an NVQ in clipboard management and wears a high viz jacket.

This place is good entertainment though.

i wouldnt pick wild flowers
but i do forage blackberries
is that wrong now?

This is just an example of finger-waggers wanting to be “involved” and superior.

If bulldozers remove tons of pebbles from a beach of course it would make a difference to coastal erosion and habitat. If day trippers take a few pebbles it won’t make any difference.

But the self-appointed priests of ‘proper’ behaviour won’t ever accept that. Because they’re absolutist control freaks, that’s what gets them out of bed in the morning.

Exactly I've only ever known kids to do this and usually kids who don't go to the beach very often. I have no interest as an adult doing this but I did as a kid and my kids do

This is MN where they do no wrong and people on here would even hand in a £1 coin to the police station that they found on the street.

I assume the finger waggers and outraged all use reusable nappies and not disposable nappies?

In a way it's like ... taking fruit off wild bushes. We don't have enough for wildlife
Have you been out in the wild recently? Bushes still have plenty of berries etc, either on the bush or dropped on the ground. Wildlife is not starving due to lack of fruit!

Eh? Blackberries are regenerative. They grow to be picked. They taste good so they get picked! They’re one of natures “pick mes”

how could that be comparable to pebbles? A new one doesn’t grow in its place!