Your Tax Dollars at Work (in a good way)

These federal stimulus dollars are being spent properly. Now if we can only get "the man" to ban all netting in the Sound we'd be on our way. - BW

Old gill nets: silent killers of the Puget Sound

Old gill nets littering the sea floor are the silent killers of the Puget Sound.

The Associated Press

KINGSTON, Wash. —

Old gill nets littering the sea floor are the silent killers of the Puget Sound.

But thanks to federal stimulus money, an ongoing effort to remove old fishing gear has picked up the pace.

The Northwest Straits Derelict Fishing Gear Removal Program received $4.6 million in stimulus dollars this summer. Now four boats and about a dozen paid divers are working on the problem full-time. The organization's goal is to remove 90 percent of the estimated 4,000 nets sitting in the Puget Sound by December 2010.

The group estimates that over the last 30 years, nets have been responsible for the casualty of 30,000 birds, 110,000 fish and almost 2 million invertebrates.