Thanks to the installation of three bins to hold discarded fishing line, sea life around the Frederiksted Pier on St. Croix may have a better chance of survival. The bins were recently installed by territory’s Tourism Department in conjunction with the V.I. Port Authorityand the Florida-based Green Caribbean Initiative.
“Fishing line is a big problem everywhere,” according to Mark Lopez, Green Caribbean Initiative’s director, who spoke from his Ft. Lauderdale office on Thursday.
Lopez said he was diving with friends about a year and a half ago near the Frederiksted Pier when the group encountered a drowned mature hawksbill turtle with fishing line looped around its neck.
“We noticed a lot of fishing line all over the structure and below the pier,” Lopez said.
Deputy Tourism Commissioner Chantal Figueroa said that while the department was sad to learn of this incident, it was grateful to the Green Caribbean Initiative for offering a simple solution to this serious problem.
“I sincerely hope the public will take advantage of the bins to prevent any further harm to our precious marine resources,” Figueroa said in a press release.
The bin project began to snowball, and Lopez said the Florida Fish and Wildlife Department donated the stickers and the building plans. Green Caribbean Initiative bought the materials, and Lopez said Tropical Shipping shipped them down.
He said the Port Authority is in charge of emptying them weekly or biweekly depending on need. Tropical Shipping will take the fishing line back to Florida, where it will be recycled.
The three bins are the first such fishing line depositories in the Virgin Islands. A fourth one is in the works but Lopez said an area used by fishermen must first be identified. Additionally Tourism expects to extend the program to the St. Thomas/St. John district later this year.
Fishing line can cause great harm to marine life, boats and humans. Birds and marine animals cannot see discarded fishing line, so it is easy for them to become tangled in it and starve or drown. There is also a risk to divers who may become entangled in the plastic line and to boats when the line gets caught in a propeller.
Fishing line can persist in the environment for up to 600 years and can be responsible for considerable damage to the marine ecosystem.
