Every little bit helps

florida joe

Well-Known Member
Anglers and animals can get tangled up in a deadly web of hooks and fishing line.
A few times a year, birds caught in line fly onto Eric Mohlenhoff’s property. Sometimes he managed to set them free, he said. Sometimes not.
It’s one reason the owner of Bonita Boat Rental is on board with a new effort to collect and recycle monofilament fishing line in Bonita Springs.
“I think it’s a great idea,” Mohlenhoff said. “Anything to improve things.”
City Councilman Richard Ferreira is spearheading a program to install 10 to 15 collection bins fashioned from PVC pipe near popular fishing spots.
“If I accomplish anything in my four years, this would be one of the most important,” Ferreira said Thursday at a workshop to kick off the new program.
Bonita Springs Utilities donated the bins and Ferreira secured a $250 microgrant to pay for their mounts.
He solicited help from a dozen property owners on whose property the bins would be placed. Mohlenhoff was the only owner who showed at Thursday’s meeting, but Ferreira is hopeful others will join the effort.
Now Ferreira needs volunteers who would collect and clean the line that will eventually be sent to a recycling facility.
“I think it’s very important for Estero Bay,” he said. “Our economy relies on tourism and Estero Bay is our jewel. The main thing is the animals become entangled in it.”
Birds sometimes dive after hooked bait as it’s cast. They and other animals can also get wrapped in cut line left on shore, washed into water or tangled in trees.
Eighty to 90 percent of pelicans brought to the Conservancy of Southwest Florida’s animal clinic have a hook or line injury, said Jonee Miller, a wildlife rehab specialist.
“It’s invisible, it’s strong, which makes it great for fishing. The same attributes can make it deadly for marine life,” said Bryan Fluech, Collier County’s University of Florida Sea Grant agent who has helped with monofilament collection efforts.
He said two sea turtles were found strung together by fishing line, one alive dragging with it one that had died.
Since Collier County started its program in 2006, its 27 bins have collected 400 pounds of line.
If that 400 pounds was all 80-pound test, one of the heavier lines, end-to-end the line would stretch about 95 miles, nearly the distance between Naples and Fort Lauderdale. Most people fish with lighter, 12-pound line that would stretch even farther.
Joy Hazell, Lee County’s Sea Grant agent has pledged to help Ferreira’s efforts, such as with training volunteers, as has Lee County environmental specialist Justin McBride.
“Whatever we can do to help,” McBride said. He suggested initial locations for bins, such as near bridges popular with shoreline fishermen.
Master Bait & Tackle’s owner, Ken Strasen, has agreed to donate cardboard collection boxes similar to what he’s had in his shop for the past decade.
“To tell you the truth, I don’t care if they throw (monofilament line) in garbage recycle bins,” Strasen said. “I just don’t want it in water, in trees or on the beak of a pelican.”
 

salt210

Active Member
every time I have been fishing I collect line and make sure to throw it away for this reason
 
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