fishing line recycling program
Monofilament fishing line, when left out in the environment, can entangle marine creatures, get entangled in boat motors, and cause damage to bottom living animals like coral. Monofilament line can be recycles, saving both the environmental damage and the amount of nylon in the environment. Fishing line recycling tubes are becoming more common is many areas where fishing is popular.
More than 20 miles of fishing line, weights and derelict fishing gear has been collected as part of a recycling program established on Maui two years ago. The Maui Ocean Center Marine Institute installed 37 recycling bins at high-traffic shoreline fishing locations across the island.
On Hawaii Island this is just catching on and there were no such recycling tubes on the south Kohala coastline. To remedy this situation, Tess Kelly chose to work on the constructing and deploying fishing line collecting tubes as her final senior year Capstone Project. Her mentor and advisor during this project was marine studies coordinator Laura Jim,
The project aims to put out 7 recycling bins and tubes along the coast and at several diving stors in the vacinity of Kawaihae Harbor. The map / image below shows the locations for the various recycling bins and tubes.
