DREW, LEFT, AND ALEX joined their mother, Sage Mamayek, to empty a fishing line collection tube at Lake Antoine — both of discarded fishing line and trash such as beer cans, bottles and food wrappers. Lake Antoine Park Partners will clean and cut the discarded line into 6-inch pieces, then send the line to Berkley Pure Fishing America in Spirit Lake, Iowa, for recycling. After discarding the trash, the youngsters learned to remove any hooks or lures from the line. (Submitted photo)

As the ice disappears from Lake Antoine and other Dickinson County waterways, an effort has started to clean up what remains in terms of fishing gear left behind.

The monofilament line collection tube at the Iron Mountain boat launch was taken down last week for Lake Antoine Park Partners to empty, cut the discarded line into 6-inch pieces and send to Berkley Pure Fishing America in Spirit Lake, Iowa.

According to BoatUSA Foundation for Boating Safety and Clean Water, improperly discarded monofilament can be hazardous to wildlife, beachgoers and even boat propellers. And simply throwing it into the trash is not wise — once line goes to a landfill, longer pieces may be scavenged by animals trying to eat it or use it to build nests.

The good news is some types of fishing line can be melted down into plastic pellets that can be remanufactured into items for fishing, such as spools.

Berkley Pure Fishing America donated postage-paid collection boxes to Lake Antoine Park Partners to return the cleaned monofilament collected this winter

For more on recycling fishing line, go online to Monofilament — Build A Bin: BoatUS Foundation at https://www.boatus.org/monofilament/.