The communities of Naknek, Dillingham, Petersburg and Cordova received funding via the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission for two years to go on for net recycling projects. It is told that the pool funding comes from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Foundation, which has committed $2 million to the Fishing for Energy program over the next five years.
Kristin Smith, director of the Copper River Watershed Project, one of many recycling project partners in Cordova, said that the main aim of this project is to find an alternative use for these mountains of web that otherwise go in our landfills. He explained that each community is in the process of hiring a net recycling coordinator, whose first task will be to set up convenient net drop off areas near local harbors. The old fishing nets will be barged to a salvage company in Washington, where they are converted to pelletized plastics and sold to Asian markets.
It is mentioned that social scientists are gathering oral histories across the U.S. as a way to preserve the culture of America’s fishing communities. Fishermen, processors, boat builders, businesses, managers, scientists – anyone with a fishing story can contribute. Oral histories are created to encourage people and organizations and schools to interview people in the fishing industry, especially those who have memories of 40 or 50 years ago, and contribute their stories so they can be available to anyone in the world.
