The Town of North Hempstead has begun distributing fishing line receptacles to docks and waterways around North Hempstead in a bid to protect area wildlife.
“Each year our Bay Constables rescue sea birds and other marine life that have become entangled in discarded fishing lines,” Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Judi Bosworth said. “When fishing line is left near the water, it is hard for animals to detect and can entangle all sorts of wildlife, leading to a slow and painful death.”
Eric Swenson, executive director of the Hempstead Harbor Protection Committee, said that as water quality has improved over the last few years, there is a lot more wildlife moving in to local waterways.
Swenson said he’s worried about these new visitors including “dolphins, humpback whales, turtles, and others including falcons diamondback terrapins and osprey, all of which can be endangered by fishing line that’s improperly discarded.”
Fishing line can catch on fishing docks, bushes and shrubs found along the shorelines or even trees where it can harm other wildlife such as birds and turtles otters and frogs, the town said in a press release,
In addition to the new receptacles, signs have been placed to instruct fishers how to dispose of old lines, with written instructions and easy to understand pictures.
Mal Nathan, the town’s chief bay constable, said he has even observed birds wrapped in fishing line that became entangled on telephone and light poles, causing their death.
Nathan said he first noticed similar receptacles during a trip to Florida, and said he thought their simple PVC pipe construction would be easy to replicate for his local water ways.
“It’s an issue that really, people don’t think about much,” Nathan said. “Being on the water everyday, and fishing with my kids everywhere, I noticed they had these receptacles elsewhere.”
He said he copied the construction, and reached out to North Hempstead officials to construct proper signage, which they did successfully.
“The sign itself tells exactly what the receptacle is for, and there’s a couple of illustrations without words just showing how to use them for people that might not speak English,” Nathan said.
So far, Nathan said, he has constructed seven receptacles — one at the town dock, two at different locations in the Cherry Pond Park, as well as one receptacle at the Searingtown Pond Park, Ridder’s Pond Park, and the North Hempstead Beach Park.
Nathan said he would like to add more receptacles at areas that are currently being renovated, including Manor Haven and another at the North Hempstead Beach Park.
“Where ever we see the need arises, if we need to do more at one location we can,” he said. “Its very simple now that all the designs have been completed and PVC is cheap.”
Swenson said he is “very appreciative of the Town of North Hempstead for initiating this program that will help protect the wildlife in the harbor.”
