Is it biodegradable? Or is that just a marketing ploy for the more
expensive soaps at the boat stores?


Very few things are not biodegradable. That label does nothing to
impress our local envrio-Nazi's. They point out that during the process
of decomposition the soaps, etc, usually deplete the oxgen in water.

Some of them even do a pretty deceptive demonstration to prove the
point. They will put a few drops of "biodegradable" soap into an
aquarium, and within 24 hours the goldfish will be dead from oxygen
starvation. Looks impressive, until you do the math. How many gallons
of water in a 500 acre lake, with an average depth of 75-feet? I don't
know, but it would probably take several thousand gallons of soap in
such a lake to begin to duplicate the concentration of a few drops in a
10-gallon fish tank. If you covered the lake with boats, gunwale to
gunwale, and *everybody* poured in a gallon of undiluted soap at the
same time, it might begin to duplicate the concentration in the
aquarium demonstration.

Most of our local marinas actually have rules against using soap of any
kind to wash a boat. Fortunately, none are enforced by the marinas and
the "official" enviro Nazis have been told to back off.
(One batch of government officials wanted to fine the Seattle Polilce
Department. The cops were using tap water to "rinse" the patrol boat
after each shift. (No soap involved). The enviro-Nazis got all shrill
about dirt being washed into Lake Union. Of course, the same dirt would
have fallen directly into the lake if it hadn't landed on the police
boat as it fell to earth from our polluted atmosphere....but that
doesn't matter. I heard the Seattle Police told the Department of
Ecology to go and urinate up a rope following the initial complaint.
And should have).

We all need to protect the environment, but at the same time we need to
live in it. That doesn't mean that we should rape and pillage the
public landscape for the short term benefit of a few politically
favored corporations, but we should be able to make a reasonable use of
resources while bearing in mind the responsibility to leave a useable
and enjoyable planet to the next generations.