Stimulus money pays fishermen to snare lost nets (CNN)

By Patrick Oppmann
CNN

ON PUGET SOUND, Washington (CNN) -- When commercial diver Kenny Woodside takes to the depths, he enters a world of murky low light and dangerous currents.

Until recently Woodside and about 100 hundred other divers searched Puget Sound for sea cucumbers and urchins to sell to buyers in Asia, where the items are considered delicacies.

But demand for the fishermen's catch dried up with the worldwide economic crisis and left many of these divers without a reason to go out on the water.

"The fishing industry has slowed from a full-time job to just a couple months a year," said Doug Monk, the captain of the boat from which Woodside dives. "The red sea urchin market is almost non-existent."

But thanks to a small piece of the federal stimulus recovery plan, Monk, Woodside and about 40 other fishermen will get back to work hauling in a very different catch: lost fishing nets
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more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/08/03/stimulus.nets/index.html




These lost nets, known as "ghost" nets, are a growing hazard to many different kinds of sea life. More on "ghost" nets from earlier:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=203415&mesg_id=203415

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=203413&mesg_id=203413

How many nets are sitting on the sea floor? Is there a fine for losing a net?

good use of stimulus money