Protesting the Switch to Digital?

Cyrus Buffum, the Charleston Waterkeeper, pulls a floating T.V. out of the Stono River on Sunday. Photo by: Persis Buffum.

Last week all television channels in the United States made the switch from analog to digital broadcasts.  Without a digital converter box, many older television sets became useless last Friday.

What does this have to do with water quality in Charleston?  Well…funny you should ask!  This weekend while patrolling the Stono River, I came across a floating object in the middle of the channel.  Only meters from water skiers and wakeboarders, the mysterious object definitely posed a navigational threat.

As I approached the object I realized it was a floating television.  After calling the navigational hazard into the Coast Guard I pulled the algae-ridden T.V. (no doubt an analog set) into The Lady C.  Now honestly, who throws a T.V. into the water?