As a child swimming off the coast of south Devon in the 1960s, I believed the warm water passing through my legs was the Gulf Stream current. Now, as an adult, I realise it was actually raw sewage being discharged into the ocean.
In those days, it was not unusual for coastal towns to pump sewage out to sea where it was believed to be safely diluted. These pollution problems are now resurfacing because of poor management rather than ignorance six decades on.
