Abandoned 'killer nets' destroying Puget Sound sea life
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SEATTLE - A hidden danger lies beneath the surface of Puget Sound, killing thousands of marine animals every year.
Thousands of abandoned fishing nets cover hundreds of acres underwater - and they keep fishing long after those who cast them have gone back to shore and forgotten them.
"These nets kill indiscriminantly, everything from seastars, crabs, fish, marine mammals, birds chasing the fish into the nets," says biologist Bryan Delong.
But with help from a $4.5 million federal grant, provided under the National Recovery Act, the Northwest Straits Foundation wants to pull 3,000 of these killer nets from Puget Sound.
The dive teams include members of native tribes and commercial divers. Since last July they've removed nearly 1,500 of the nets - and found nearly 80,000 dead animals.
"We have collected a huge variety of fish, crabs, birds, the whole spectrum," says Ginny Broadhurst of the Northwest Straits Initiative.
But what they find is just fraction of the sea life killed by these nets. Some of these "ghost nets" have been down here for decades.
Broadhurst explains: "The modern stuff that's been used in the past 50 years or so is completely nondegradable. The integrity stays intact year after years after year."
On a recent day they brought up a net estimated to be about 20 years old that has cut a huge path of destruction.
"We'll have them up to 800, 900 feet long," Delong says.
By the end of the year the group plans to restore hundreds of acres of underwater habitat.
But until that's done they'll keep diving to find the silent killers lurking on the bottom.
Thousands of abandoned fishing nets cover hundreds of acres underwater - and they keep fishing long after those who cast them have gone back to shore and forgotten them.
"These nets kill indiscriminantly, everything from seastars, crabs, fish, marine mammals, birds chasing the fish into the nets," says biologist Bryan Delong.
But with help from a $4.5 million federal grant, provided under the National Recovery Act, the Northwest Straits Foundation wants to pull 3,000 of these killer nets from Puget Sound.
The dive teams include members of native tribes and commercial divers. Since last July they've removed nearly 1,500 of the nets - and found nearly 80,000 dead animals.
"We have collected a huge variety of fish, crabs, birds, the whole spectrum," says Ginny Broadhurst of the Northwest Straits Initiative.
But what they find is just fraction of the sea life killed by these nets. Some of these "ghost nets" have been down here for decades.
Broadhurst explains: "The modern stuff that's been used in the past 50 years or so is completely nondegradable. The integrity stays intact year after years after year."
On a recent day they brought up a net estimated to be about 20 years old that has cut a huge path of destruction.
"We'll have them up to 800, 900 feet long," Delong says.
By the end of the year the group plans to restore hundreds of acres of underwater habitat.
But until that's done they'll keep diving to find the silent killers lurking on the bottom.
