What began as a simple request from the NYS Bass Federation to help the New York State Dept. of Conservation (NYS DEC) in maintaining boat launch and public access fishing sites, turned into a commitment to also help the environment.

In 2010, we adopted 18 different sites in a 3 county area Onondaga, Oswego, and Cayuga).  At 10 of those sites we placed fish line recycling tubes, using the plans that we found found on the Boat/US website.

 

Some people might ask why recycle fish line?  It is interesting to note that it takes approx. 500 years for fish line to break down in the environment.  The line is a hazard if left lying around to wildlife and others.

 

Barb Elliott from Salt City Bassmasters found and rescued this sea gull who was entangled with fish line

 

One of our members emptying a recycling tube

The fish line, which is collected by us, is then sent into Berkley ( a manufacture of fishing line) to be recycled and made into habitat for fish.

3 lbs of fishing line collected in 2010

In 2011, thanks to receiving additional fish line recycling tubes from Boat/US, we placed 10 more fish line recycling tubes up at various locations.  We collected nearly 4 lbs of fishing line.

It is interesting to note that a 1 lb spool of 10 lbs test fishing line contains 10,000 feet of fishing line.

Our club plans on and will continue our conservation efforts.  Besides recycling the fishing line, our members also pick up trash and recyclables and dispose of them in the proper manner at our sites.

3 feet of line collected and a 5 gal. bucket of trash found in the recycling bin.

We usually find more than fish line in our recycling bins.  Like it or not, it is trash that could have ended up in our water ways.  In 2011 our club member collected approx. 40 large bags of trash from various sites.