About 125 miles of fishing line recycled by DoE

DoE officer untangles a turtle from fishing line

(CNS): Since the Department of Environment (DoE) installed its fishing line recycling bins around the islands around three years ago, at least 300lbs has now been shipped overseas for recycling in partnership with the Department of Environmental Health (DEH) and US recycler Berkley Fishing, according to a DoE Facebook post. The collected line is recycled into products such as artificial fish habitats. The DoE said the collected fishing line would stretch about 125 miles, roughly the distance between New York  and Atlantic City, New Jersey.

The DoE explained that fishing line takes over 600 years to degrade and Cayman has seen many instances where sea turtles entangled in discarded line suffered severe flipper injuries or have even drowned.

DoE Sustainable Development Officer Leah Grant collects discarded lines from the bins about once a month. There are more than 25 in all three islands located at boat launch ramps and some local dive shops.

The department thanked Kirk Marine, which is the largest contributor of the recycled fishing line, as it collects the line at the end of fishing contests from re-spooling reels.