Fishing Line Recycling
With sea turtle nesting season approaching, a new local initiative from the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, Jekyll Island Authority, and Georgia Department of Natural Resources is now in place on Jekyll Island. Fishing line recycling containers have been installed near several waterfront areas including Clam Creek, the old draw bridge, Jekyll Harbour Marina, Rixen Pond, and St. Andrews Picnic Area. When the containers are full, the fishing line will be collected and sent to a fishing gear company to recycle the line along with other plastic materials.

Lots of trash and debris travels from humans into our environment, but monofilament fishing line is especially dangerous for sea turtles, birds, dolphins and many other animals. Fishing line takes hundreds of years to break down in the natural environment, so allowing more and more into the environment increases the threat of animals getting tangled. Fishing gear is responsible for a majority of sea turtle entanglement cases.

It may be nearly impossible for an entangled turtles to feed or escape predators. Because they cannot swim well, entangled turtles may be stuck by a boat or caught by a passing trawler. Fishing line can get caught around a turtle’s flippers causing serious wounds and infections and if a turtle is trapped underwater it will drown without air to breathe. Now people on Jekyll Island can help prevent these tragedies by keeping used fishing line out of waterways and recycle fishing line in the new containers.

The Georgia Sea Turtle Center would like to thank everyone who helped kick-off Jekyll Island’s fishing line recycling project. Doug Haymans, GA DNR Coastal Resources Division, supplied materials and coordinated this project for Glynn County. Cade Stepp of JIA Roads, Beaches, and Trails Maintenance and staff members Vu Trinh, Phil Boulanger, and Paul Hollis were responsible for installing the containers and signs. Other support came from University of Central Florida Alternative Spring Break volunteers who added the final touch on the containers: “Thank you for supporting Georgia’s sea turtles.”