October 15th, 2008

By John DeFore

Eco-minded fishing enthusiasts may be aware, and appalled, that the traditional monofilament fishing line they probably use isn’t only made of petroleum but, should a stretch of it break off and get lost in the deep, it will hang around for centuries, quite likely obstructing fish habitat and definitely junking up our already too polluted waters.

One solution: Bioline biofilament, which when dropped into a lake, according to the manufacturer, “will be gone in five years versus six hundred.”

Sold online by the outdoor goods retailer Go Fast and Light — where you can find a trout bait that’s also 90% biodegradable, with the remainder made of sand — the line comes in 210-yard spools ranging from 4- to 12-pound test weights. (It’s sold in a sealed pouch that has a five-year shelf life when sealed; once opened and put to use, the line should retain 100% of its strength for 10 to 12 months.)

A spinoff of the technology that led to medical sutures that dissolve into the human body, Bioline’s product claims to comply with ASTM’s “Standard Specifications for Compostable Plastics” and, according to Go Fast’s Patrick Dotterweich, is “in the final month of lab testing (which simulates a five year span in six months in a lab) that will certify their claim to [be] 100% biodegradable by a 3rd party test.”

Dotterweich adds, “The five year claim is conservative,” and that “under ideal ‘composting type’ conditions they expect it to be gone in less time.”

Giving the world the first fishing line that got away.

Copyright © 2008 | Distributed by Noofangle Media