A Tangled Mess We Weave
By Ron Wooten
Summer, winter, spring, or fall, a trip to the beach brings a smile to all! Digging your toes into the sand as you kick back and listening to the sound of the waves eases stress and has been medically proven to cure all manner of ills - well, at least they don’t seem quite as bad. The beach offers all kinds of treasures, all tossed ashore by the constant onslaught of waves and the ebb and flow of the great tides, those huge daily waves that cross the surface of the earth and push and pull the surfaces of all bodies of water. These forces add to our enjoyment of the coasts, as we collect shells and evidence of the strange and wonderful life found in the Gulf as it reaches these shores. Unfortunately, the tides also carry human waste in the form of garbage and other debris. Our joy at coming to the beaches and shores can rapidly turn to sadness as we see swathes of garbage heaped along the tidal lines and in the dunes. Too often, we become immune to these sights and just accept the problem as a part of visiting the beaches. Kids can make the best of it by using old cans or plastic pieces as digging tools, but fun turns to tragedy when feet are cut by shards of glass or other sharp items. Besides being just plain ugly, this trash poses a worldwide problem. While much of this material is carried from distant places, local beachgoers sometimes do not clean up their trash after they leave the beach. While all waste materials create problems in the marine environment, perhaps the most sinister of these is monofilament fishing line and nets. Recreational fishing along the Texas Coast is big business. Texas ranks second only to Florida in recreational fishing expenditures in the United States. In 2006, the American Sportfishing Association
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estimated the annual expenditure of freshwater and saltwater Texas anglers exceeded $3 billion. While Texas offers many great coastal areas for fishing, Galveston and the Galveston Bay area rank among the top destinations for catching redfish, speckled trout, flounder, and the numerous other offshore and near-shore species. There are many ways to catch fish, but hook and line are the method of choice, and while there are a few different fishing lines available, nylon monofilament is used on most reels. A Tangled Mess Monofilament was developed in 1939 by the DuPont corporation, and quickly became the fishing line of choice for both recreational and commercial fisheries. Fisherman prefer mono because it is strong, lightweight, comes in a variety of colors to match fishing conditions, and very inexpensive. Monofilament, while sometimes becoming brittle after age, does last longer than most materials. In fact, it takes 600 years for monofilament to degrade in the environment. However, with the advent and use of monofilament, a unique set of problems arose. The same attributes that make monofilament such a great fishing line also create a host of problems in marine environments. As hooks or line gets snagged on obstructions underwater (and in trees or power lines) or perhaps in the mouths of those exceptionally large fish the line breaks, leaving long, invisible tentacles trailing in the water or air. Monofilament cast nets are notorious for grabbing our rocks and any other underwater snag around the groins and jetties and even open water, and are lost to the environment. These tendrils and blankets of line have a tendency to find boat propellers, and can cause a big headache and possible damage
Photo by Ron Wooten Courtesy image
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