• Although agriculture contributes to a wide range of water quality problems, anthropogenic erosion and sedimentation is a global issue that tends to be primarily associated with agriculture.

• Although stormwater runoff is generally more contaminated in urban areas, it also poses concerns in towns and rural areas, where erosion and sedimentation from roads, road-dust abatement chemicals, and road salt contribute to pollution.

• Visual documentation of nets observed in the Puget Sound and the Northwest Straits suggests that scouring and sedimentation under derelict nets is greater than in areas devoid of debris (Good et al., 2010).