VERO BEACH — Volunteers and local residents gathered in Vero Beach this past Saturday morning to help sort through piles of discarded fishing line, all in an effort to protect local wildlife and support ocean conservation.
Coastal Connections, a Vero Beach–based nonprofit, held a volunteering opportunity for residents to help tackle the fishing line debris problem by sorting and recycling fishing line from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. just outside the Wabasso Bait and Tackle Shack in Vero Beach on June 21.
“Every quarter, we sort through the fishing line collected from 44 recycling tubes across the county,” said Rescue and Research Coordinator Olivia Redding, who helped organize the event. “We separate the monofilament from any braided line, hooks, weights, or lures to make sure it’s clean before sending it to Berkley Fishing in Iowa, where it gets melted down and repurposed. We revamped the program in October 2024 and now monitor the tubes regularly with the help of volunteers.”…