Fishing line recycling can save turtles
Discarded fishing line
(CNS): Given the serious threat that lost and discarded fishing line poses to marine life, and turtles in particular, the Department of Environment is starting an initiative to encourage the community to recycle old lines and will be installing bins across the islands to collect it. Alongside the recycling programme, the department is launching a competition for local students to design a poster showing the dangers of fishing line entanglement to local marine life.
The recycling project and the competition are designed to mark World Environment Day on 5 June and raise awareness about the problems discarded line causes for the country’s endangered sea turtles, as well as other marine creatures.
Crab tangled in fishing line
“In the Cayman Islands, entanglement in lost and discarded monofilament fishing line is one of the leading causes of severe injury and death for turtles,” said Dr Janice Blumenthal, who coordinates the DoE’s marine turtle research programme. “Entangled turtles die from injuries caused by loops of line tightening around their neck or flippers or drown when they cannot break lines to reach the surface.”
Humans have had a massively detrimental impact on the survival of turtles around the world, from fishing, which is believed to be the greatest cause of their decline, to coastal development. It is easy to see how after years of catching turtles coming ashore to nest, poaching eggs and over-fishing have reduced the population, people often forget about the unintended consequences of fishing lines and nets which are dropped and discarded in the ocean or by the shore and washed out to sea, where they can then entangle and kill turtles.
Hawksbill turtle tangled in fishing line
The DoE said officials will be installing bins across all the three islands to collect fishing lines found around the shores and the ocean, which will be shipped to the USA for recycling. The winning poster designs from the competition, open to all local students under 17, will be turned into signs to promote the initiative and accompany some of the recycling bins.
The competition winners will be announced on World Environment Day. As well as using the designs for the promotional material, the DoE said there would be other prizes on offer, including the chance to participate in turtle hatchling releases and nest excavations, passes for the Atlantis Submarine, Cayman Kayak tours, t-shirts and gift bags.
Category: Marine Environment, Science & Nature
Not eating turtles will save more turtles.
Dear CNS , I don’t see the purpose of not having the thumb up thumb down button , one can’t tell if the readers are reading the topic or the comments . I like to help but if I can’t see that my help is appreciated or acknowledged , I quit helping.
CNS: The thumbs that we had were causing a few problems. I’ll see if I can rectify those or if I need to find a different thumb system. Hopefully you’ll have the thumbs back tomorrow.
I think that education is the key to helping out with keeping the marine environment clean and safe for those who lives in it , those who enjoys it. I know that a lot off the thing’s that is dangerous to marine life is not caused by me or you, but if I see something that is going to be a danger to the marine environment I removes it . We have to remember that this is part of the world that we all live in , and if we don’t protect and take care of it, soon we would not have it, and all the wonderful things that comes from it, fish, turtle, lobsters, much more. Remember who’s going to be the biggest beneficiaries are mine and your kids, which they need to be thought this too.
You Sir have some good learning! I wish more Caymanians thought that way. Unfortunately most of US (yes I am Caymanian) rape and pillage the marine environment with no regard for future generations.
Recycling it seems like a bit of a waste of time… a whole spool of line is probably only the equivalent of a few plastic bottles.
I’d be surprised if there were many fishermen who deliberately discard line in the sea these days anyway – surely most of it is the result of broken lines?
Evidently you have never walked along the ironshore areas along the coastlines.
Yes, because turtles are always walking on the ironshore and getting caught in lines
The point is that shore anglers regularly make a mess of our shores by discarding lines and squid boxes and the boys out at sea dump a lot of their tackle and other junk overboard. Either way wildlife suffers unnecessarily as a result of inconsiderate behaviour. Not to mention our reputation as a place that tourists might want to visit.
free poster paper from the recycling & recovery people on dump road Why pay for it ?
Thumbs down.