Monofilament. Easily the most popular and used fishing line. It's cheap, durable, and can be bought in, seemingly, any store that has anything to do with fish, which can be tackle shops or a 7-11 that sells Goldfish crackers.

It also is discarded from boats and thrown on shores and riverbanks with reckless abandonment. This Saturday, there will be a wide-spread mono cleanup of the Tampa area. It's the 15th annual Monofilament Cleanup Day, and they never have a shortage of line to gather.

"It's actually a very big problem for healthy birds because typically it's the very healthy birds out foraging for food that become entangled," said Ann Paul, regional coordinator for Audubon of Florida. "They can get snagged in monofilament when they catch somebody's bait on a hook."

Discarded fishing line is likely the number one killer of brown pelicans in Tampa Bay, Paul said. "A tremendous number get hooked and hang and dangle and die. We've seen skimmers and terns, spoonbills, all entangled. It's heart-breaking to see."

Click here for the full story.

I hope that anglers make up the bulk of the volunteers this Saturday. With all that fishermen do to protect their streams and fish populations, it's sad to think that all this fishing line is the cause of so many unnecessary deaths. So, before you head out to chase redfish in the shallows, troll for stripers, or cast for trout, take off your old line, recycle it, and spool on some fresh line that is less likely to break off and litter the beaches.