This morning I joined thirty other volunteers to sort monofilament line at Tampa Bay Watch. Our task was to separate discarded fishing line from trash before cutting off all hooks, weights, and other bits of tackle.

Not only does this project keep fishing line out of the environment (helping to prevent wildlife entanglement) but our debris-free monofilament will be recycled into new line.

A light breeze coming off Mullet Key Bayou kept us comfortable (and wafted away some of the delightful dead fish smell). We cleaned an estimated 139 miles of line this morning! At the end of our project a manatee swam by, I took it as a thank you.