Fishing lines and related products

Claim 1

A degradable fishing line that consists essentially of a monofilament having a tensile strength of at least 50,000 psi, said monofilament consisting essentially of a linear polyester consisting essentially of recurring structural units of the formula: --C(O)--R--C(O)--OGO-- wherein R consists essentially of divalent hydrocarbylene radicals and at least 75 mole % of R is p-phenylene, wherein G consists essentially of the following radicals: a radical of a polyalkylene ether glycol of molecular weight at least 250, in amount at least 5 % by weight of the polyester, a polyethylene ether radical selected from the group consisting of --(CH 2 ) 2 --O--(CH 2 ) 2 --and --(CH 2 ) 2 --O--(CH 2 ) 2 --O--(CH 2 ) 2 --, in amount up to about mole % of G, and the remainder of G is a hydrocarbylene radical selected from the group consisting of --(CH.sub.2).sub.2 --,--(CH.sub.2).sub.3 --, and --(CH.sub.2).sub.4 --radicals, and wherein up to 3 mole % of the polyester may contain alkali metal or alkaline earth metal sulfo groups; and wherein the polyester is stabilized by a stabilizer, in amount up to 5 percent by weight said stabilizer and said amount being, selected such that the tensile strength of the fishing line is not reduced more than 5 % over a 2 month storage period in ambient air, when protected from light, but is reduced by at least 15 % over a 2 month period of exposure to aerated water at 30 degrees C.