I'm not going to quote your whole post, FnP but AMEN!!! That is the "tragedy of the commons" statement I mentioned above. We all, collectively, are paying for something that someone else benefits from. While we can't know who specifically is responsible for the derelict gear (um... would tags or some sort of required ID be that hard to install)?, we can narrow it down to a very narrow user group. That group should be responsible for the cost of removal.

Toy Boat, I think you have a good point but I look at this in another way. Being that the netters aren't going to pay for it, and the state and/or groups won't get to it for a long time, why shouldn't or can't a group of regular citizens deal with this? If it simply involves rakes (and not divers), couldn't it be done with a boat or two? This is probably right in line with removing derelict crab or shrimp pots though where helping out would end up with a ticket from some regulatory agency. Arg!!!