Iowa Outdoors

Iowa Department of Natural Resources

www.iowadnr.gov

 

Editor:  Mick Klemesrud, 515/281-8653

mick.klemesrud@dnr.state.ia.us

May 22, 2007

Anglers Trashing Shoreline is Major Problem

 DES MOINES – Littering is not only an eyesore, it shows a lack of respect someone demonstrates by leaving their trash behind for others to clean up. And there may be no worst group of litterbugs than those among the fishing community.

“Anglers are the worst of the worst of the outdoor groups for cleaning up after ourselves,” said Marion Conover, chief of fisheries for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.  “I can only guess that those who purposefully leave their trash behind are lazy, disrespectful lawbreakers and I’m sorry to call them anglers.”

A number of groups and conservation organizations spend countless hours volunteering their time to clean the shorelines of the empty bait containers, old fishing line, pop and beer cans, chips and candy wrappers and so on. 

“Just about anything you can carry with you fishing, we’ve probably cleaned it up,” Conover said.  “It is very frustrating from my perspective because it seems our constituency is infected with more than our fare share of litterbugs and that is unfortunate.  We are using a lot of energy and resources to get people fishing and when they come out to a lake they see all this trash on shore.  That’s pretty disappointing.”

Anglers should tuck a few plastic grocery sacks in their tackle bag and use it for trash. 

 “When you’re done fishing, carry the sack out with you.  Pretty simple,” Conover said.  “It’s our resource and we need to do a better job keeping it clean.”

  

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