In the environment, discarded fishing lines pose countless threats to wildlife due to entanglement, foul hooking, or by being ingested.
Animals such as birds, sea turtles, fish and marine mammals are found with injuries and deaths caused by monofilament encounters. With the help of volunteers, containers are installed on various piers along Galveston Island to provide a place for people to discard their used monofilament fishing line, a common line used by anglers, that would otherwise end up in the environment. Once collected, the line is shipped to Berkley, a leader in fishing equipment manufacturing, who then melts the line to its raw form for use in the construction of tackle boxes, line spools and artificial reef structures. Some of the containers will be adopted by local scout groups, bait shops and outfitters who will monitor their containers, empty the line, then report the weight to the Monofilament Recovery and Recycling Program.