Lost fishing nets strewn along the bottom of Puget Sound have been drowning thousands of fish, birds, seals, crabs and other marine life each year. And some of these ghost nets have been silently killing creatures for a decade or more.

But now a local conservation group will have the support it needs to clean up most of the mess, thanks to a $4.6 million federal grant.

The money, which comes from the federal stimulus package, will fund the Northwest Straits Commission’s effort to remove 3,000 lost fishing nets littering Puget Sound.

“Derelict fishing gear is a worldwide issue,” said Ginny Broadhurst, director of the commission. “We seem to have a particularly bad problem here.”

Over the past seven years, the group has removed 1,200 nets from the Sound and around the San Juan Islands by piecing together funding from smaller grants. With the large infusion that’s coming through NOAA Fisheries Service, Broadhurst estimates that 90 percent of the nets in local marine waters will be removed.

During the heyday of gillnetting, about 3,500 fishing permits were issued; that number is down to about 350 today, Broadhurst said. Her group estimates that with the reduction in fishing and improvements in technology, about 10 to 12 nets are lost each year.

“If we can just get this legacy stuff out of here we will have solved the problem,” she said.

This week, NOAA announced that $16.5 million was awarded to six Puget Sound projects. The funding was lauded by Gov. Chris Gregoire, who is leading an effort to return the health of the Sound by 2020.

“This decision highlights Washington’s leadership in the nation in responding to Endangered Species Act issues, and working successfully with communities to engage citizens in the challenging work of restoring Puget Sound,” Gregoire said in a prepared statement.

Lost fishing nets trap and drown thousands of marine animals annually.

Other projects receiving federal money all involve restoration work. The project sites are the Elwha River floodplain in Port Angeles, Smuggler’s Slough in the Nooksack River estuary near Bellingham, Qwuloolt estuary in Marysville, Fisher Slough marsh in Burlington and Hansen Creek floodplain in Milltown.

The money being used by the Mt. Vernon, Wash.-based Northwest Straits Commission was granted to the Northwest Straits Marine Conservation Foundation.

Funding for net removal means the number of boats working on the effort quadruples from one to four, and 40 people will be employed, including captains, commercial divers and biologists. When nets are hauled aboard, researchers take an inventory of what’s in them. More than 5,500 animals — mostly invertebrates, clams and significant number of Dungeness crabs — have been tallied since 2002. Seabirds are also often ensnared by the nets.

“What we see when we pull (the nets) is a snapshot in time of what it’s killed today,” Broadhurst said. “If it’s been in 15 years, everything that’s caught in the net is completely devoured within seven to 10 days.”

The group knows where to find the nets based mostly on where fishing rates have been highest and where the sea bottom features rocky reefs that grab hold of nets. There’s a “no-fault” reporting system under which fishermen can provide locations for lost nets without fear of punishment. Dive surveys then help pinpoint the location of derelict gear.

The recovered gear is hauled out and sent to a landfill. It’s not feasible to recycle the nets, which are often a gunky mess and contain lead lines used to weigh them down that would have to be removed first.

The Northwest Straits’ net removal effort has been so successful that it’s considered a model and replicated elsewhere, including sites in California and the Chesapeake Bay, Broadhurst said.

Work paid for with the NOAA stimulus dollars will start now and end in 18 months. If all goes as planned, it could mean the end of the commission’s focus on net removal.

“This is a job that’s good to work yourself out of,” Broadhurst said. “There’s still lots of restoration work to do in Puget Sound, so we’re not going to be idle.”Â

SAVE THE SOUND:
You can report lost fishing gear with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife here, and learn more about the research done on derelict fishing gear and its effects on marine life here.