BAY VIEW — A $4.6 million federal grant will help a nonprofit group here “turn the corner” on Puget Sound’s problem of aging derelict fishing gear by funding the removal of 90 percent of the nets, which endanger wildlife, boats and swimmers.

Many of the plastic mono-filament gill nets have become a hazard since they were lost between 1960 and 1995, the heyday of fishing in the Sound.
“The hazard is they catch anything that comes their way — birds, fish, mammals and crabs,” said Nir Barnea, West Coast marine debris coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Response and Restoration.

Gill nets get their name because fish swimming through catch their gills and are unable to back out, freeing themselves from the net. Once trapped, the crabs and fish starve and birds, seals and people can drown, Barnea said.

Northwest Straits Marine Conservation Foundation plans to use the $4.6 million NOAA grant, announced Tuesday, to remove 3,000 derelict nets, roughly 220 tons.

Derelict nets in the Sound tend to be found in heavily fished areas such as Point Roberts, and in the San Juan Islands, where they catch on rocky reefs, said Ginny Broadhurst, secretary of the foundation, which is based out of the Padilla Bay Interpretive Center. The foundation will also survey the Sound to locate nets that haven’t been mapped.

Since 2002, the straits initiative has removed 1,200 derelict nets. The grant means that the foundation will be able to spend the next 18 months potentially quadrupling its efforts by putting four vessels in the water to retrieve and dispose of nets, rather than one.

“We’re never going to have 20-year-old nets out there again,” Broadhurst said. “We’re turning the corner on the problem.”

Although Gov. Chris Gregoire has set a goal of restoring the Sound by 2020, the recession has cut into state money for environmental cleanup. The $16.5 million that agencies, tribes and nonprofit in Washington received from NOAA may offset some of the state cutbacks, as well as provide funds to expand projects, such as the foundation’s, that were already underway.

A 2008 study contracted by the Northwest Straits Marine Conservation Initiative, which has ties with the foundation, found that over time derelict fishing nets will kill thousands of crabs, fish and seabirds.

Removal of the so-called legacy nets won’t eliminate the problem of derelict gear. Derelict crab pots will still need to be removed from the Sound, and fishermen will lose gear in the future. However, Broadhurst said that after cleaning up most of the nets, the foundation will be able to concentrate on “maintenance” and responding to gear immediately after it’s lost.

n Marta Murvosh can be reached at 360-416-2149 or .