10:21 PM Fri, Jul 31, 2009 | Permalink |
By Lori Matsukawa / KING 5 News
SEATTLE - A $5 million piece of the federal stimulus package will help clear miles of so-called "ghost nets" that lurk beneath Puget Sound.
They trap all manner of sealife, including crabs and whales.
You can't see them from the Sound's surface and that's why it's been hard to get funding to get rid of abandoned fishing nets.
"Imagine if you had nets strung along the streets that are catching bunny rabbits and squirrels," says Ginny Broadhurst of the Northwest Straits Marine Conservation Initiative. "We wouldn't be discussing whether we should remove the net. We would be pulling them! It would be immediate. When those threats are underwater it's so much harder to know what kind of impacts they are having."
The stimulus money will help the Northwest Straits Marine Conservation Initiative hire 40 people to clear out an estimated 3,000 fishing nets by hand. Diver Kenny Woodside works on a net bigger than a football field some 80 feet below the surface of the Sound. The pieces of net are pulled aboard the ship, along with their catch.
"This is a Puget Sound king crab, very rare," says Patrick Oppmann, an onboard observer, holding up a plate-sized crab with several legs missing. "It's a protected species. You are not supposed to be catching them. But as they say, 'The net doesn't know that.' "
Many of the divers used to harvest sea cucumbers and sea urchins for the Japanese market, but that work dried up with the economic decline. They say the stimulus money couldn't have come at a better time.
"They're blue collar divers that taught themselves this profession," said Jeff June, a biologist. "They depend on their own abilities to earn a living.This is exactly how this money needs to be spent. It's going to stay in the local community. It's going to support these families."
The funds are part of the $787 billion stimulus package passed by Congress a few months ago. Stimulus money is creating jobs all over the Northwest as workers are hired to fix roads and bridges and thin forests.
How does one get information about this program?
$5 million to hire 40 people. Wow that's a stimulus deal to really jump start the economy. how about throwing half of that into cash for clunkers and continuing with that. The first real stimulus I have seen from this, everything else has been spending labeled stimulus. selling cars (salesman gets commission# recylce center sells steel #makes money#, smelter employees people to get steel melted down, car gets sold #factory workers). Now all of those people may be able to pay there bills and spend more money. It does not take a rocket scientist. duh.
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Margaret
http://grantfoundation.net
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Margaret
http://grantfoundation.net
Great. So we use tax payer $$$ to clean up a mess brought on by private industry. I'm all for removing the nets, but it's the fishermen and/or the consumers of fish that should pay. How about an ongoing tax on nets and/or fish to pay for the cleanup?