Disposition of Cremated Remains in Water

Catchy title, huh?

So your loved one is being cremated and wants to have a body of water as their final resting place. This is often a great idea but requires planning.

Is it legal?

By following this blog you have already proven yourself to be internet savvy. Go to the website for the municipality where you are planning to be leaving the remains and find out. I am pleased that none of the hundreds of services in which I have been involved have had a run-in with the law due to choice of disposition. I'd prefer if you were not the first.

I just want to drop the urn in the water.

In Barcelona, Spain thousands of families drop ashes still in the urn over the side of boats. But metal and wooden urns often float and do not disintegrate quickly. On the Barcelona coast there are so many urns, floating or sunken, that they have to be gathered as sea debris. Garbage.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t think of anything less meaningful and closure shattering than the idea of my beloved’s remains floating back to shore, or being caught up in fishing nets to be returned to land in a trash heap.

The solution for this is the sea salt urn. These look like marble urns but when dropped overboard sink with a satisfying plop and then dissolve. Everything is water soluble: the sides, the lid, the glue, and the bag in which the cremains are stored. It all dissolves in forty minutes. No garbage, no flying ash, no contamination.

Salt urns are available online or from funeral homes. The supremely crafty can make their own. Give yourself some time on that one, though. Size, consistency, and the lid are vitally important to design.

There are other options on this front. I just find the salt urns to work best.

We want to scatter the ashes off the side of the boat.
I am an ash scattering expert. It is a tricky business, and it should not be done at sea unless there is NO WIND or you are 100% confident on the wind's direction in relation to the bodies of those gathered to witness this event. Trust me on this point.

If you are insisting on this means of disposition, think it through carefully and consider a rehearsal with charcoal ash. Remember, the remains will not be sinking readily but instead be on the top of the water. Some people like this effect, others don't. Think it through.

Can this be done from the shore?

Yes and in many ways.

One of my friends likes the trench effect for a place with waves. At the edge of the reach of the waves you dig a trench that is about 10-12 feet long and a sand castle shovel deep. The displaced sand goes on the side away from the water. The cremated remains are carefully poured in from sand level the length of the trench. To cut down on the possibilities of ash on the wind, cover the trench with flower petals. When the waves reach the trench they start to pull the cremated remains into the water with the petals. This works best when the tide is coming in.

Whatever way you decide to put the cremated remains in the water, think through the details of the process. It can be a beautiful ritual if done well.

(Some of this post is from an October 22, 2006 post on Auspicious Jots)