Monofilament fishing line collection a success for St. Lucie County

[Sam]

FORT PIERCE — Imagine enough fishing line to stretch up the coast from St. Lucie County to the Florida/Georgia state border.

About 230 miles worth of monofilament fishing line was collected in 2006 as part of the county's fishing line recycling program, signaling a success for the venture started in 2003 by county extension agents Ken Gioeli and LeRoy Creswell and Jackie Burgess, recycling manager for St. Lucie County.

The three brought the state program to St. Lucie County, which was one of the first counties in the state to participate, Creswell said. The L-shaped recycling bins are made of PVC piping and located at almost every boat ramp in the county.


The program works like this:
• Fishing line is placed in the recycling bins and then collected by Gioeli or Creswell.
• The line is cleaned and packed in boxes that hold about 40 to 50 pounds of line
• Boxes are sent to Berkley, a fishing equipment manufacturer in Iowa, and the company recycles the line by making it into fish habitats for lakes and ponds.


"We don't see them down here in the saltwater environment but they're certainly used in lakes. ... They use these as freshwater environments," Creswell said. According to Creswell, there are bins at all the boat ramps, most of the marinas and at the foot of many local bridges in the county.
The biggest benefit of the program is helping protect area wildlife, Gioeli said.


"I work with wildlife rehabilitators in the area that have horror stories about pelicans that have gangrenous wings because the fishing line has been tied up around the wing and just cut off their circulation," he said. "So we're able to do something and the citizens of St. Lucie County are able to do something to help wildlife just by seeing the fishing line that might be broken just picking it up off the ground and putting it in these recycling bins."


Local anglers have been taking advantage of the program since it began.
"I've always put monofilament fishing line in there. ... I don't throw my line in the garbage so it ends up in the landfill, I recycle all of mine," said Fort Pierce resident Tom Lewis, who is a recreational angler.
Lewis, who fishes from both a boat and on land, said he also picks up stray fishing line and recycles it.


Although the recycling bins are used by fishermen, a lot of the line comes from residents walking on the beach who find it, Gioeli said."We have people taking it upon themselves when they see fishing line broken on the rocks on the jetty, they know about the program, so they'll collect it off the rocks and they'll go put it in the recycling bin," Gioeli said. "So people are aware of it, they're taking real ownership in the program and they're helping us clean this monofilament fishing line out of the environment."


Even with the success of the program, it has had some trouble. The county lost more than half of its bins for the program during the 2004 hurricanes, and Creswell had to rebuild and redeploy them.But Creswell and Gioeli have bigger plans for the program, including possible state funds that could finance more bins throughout the county."I'm confident we may get some more money from them to add to the program," Creswell said.


FISHING LINE PROGRAM
The county's monofilament fishing line program collects used fishing line in bins throughout the county, which in turn is recycled into fish habitats.
• About 230 miles worth of fishing line collected through the program in 2006.
• 23 boxes located throughout St. Lucie County.
• To see more on what happens to recycled fishing line, visit Berkley Conservation Institute

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