No Line Left Behind! 
by Melanie Piazza, Director of Animal Care 

Among the most heartbreaking wildlife cases we see are those that could easily have been prevented. Prime examples of such preventable suffering are those patients that have swallowed a fishing hook or become tangled in discarded fishing line. 

Animals entangled in fishing line suffer from a variety of problems; the restricted ability to move can lead to drowning or starvation, vulnerability to predators, infections and even limb amputation as the animal struggles against the line. The increasingly large number of cases we see are just the ones lucky enough to be found and rescued. 

Like other forms of thoughtless behavior, discarded fishing line is also a danger to humans. There have been cases of divers who have run out of air before they were able to free themselves from entanglement. Boaters are familiar with the damage, risk and expense of line tangled in propellers or a boat's motor or bilge pump. And of course the environment always suffers when littered. Plastic monofilament can persist in the environment for up to 600 years.


WildCare Fishing Line Recycling Program 

WildCare's new pilot program is modeled on a monofilament recycling program that has been successful in Florida. (Visit www.fishinglinerecycling.org.) The used and tangled monofilament line is shipped to Berkley Recycling Collection Center in Iowa where the plastic will be recycled into other products. 

Cardboard bins are provided free of charge by the recycler. WildCare is the first facility in the Bay Area to have a monofilament line recycling bin available to the public! Similar bins will be installed indoors in tackle, bait and sporting shops. For outdoor use, PVC recycling bins with instructions in both English and Spanish will be installed at various locations. Forester Engineering in San Rafael has agreed to donate enough PVC pipe to make 30 bins which will be constructed by WildCare volunteers. 

Our first partner in this new program is The Marin Municipal Water District. MMWD has requested bins for each of Marin's reservoirs. They will monitor and empty the bins regularly. 

So, with a little luck and a lot of hard work, it is our hope that WildCare's Fishing Line Recycling Program will be a success in Marin, and that the program will eventually spread throughout the entire Bay Area. Wildlife, environment and humans will only benefit!

If you would like to be a part of the WFLRP team, know of funding sources, or have contacts in the fishing community that could assist us in this effort, please contact me at melaniepiazza@wildcarebayarea.org.


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