Fishing Lines and Hooks a Danger to Wildlife

We all enjoy seeing flocks of our beautiful shorebirds as they pick out tasty bits by the water’s edge. So often, we’ve stopped to watch a brown pelican as it dives for food at high speed, breaks the water’s surface, and scoops up a fish without breaking its neck.

Yet, there is a flip side to that incredible and beautiful scene, something that delivers stress, pain, suffering and often death to that same pelican. Pelicans know where the fish are and this quest can often bring them in contact with fishing hooks or line entanglement leading to death or injury.

Joanna Fitzgerald, Director of the von Arx Wildlife Hospital at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida has been working at the Conservancy for twenty-seven years. During her tenure, injuries from fishing line and hooks have consistently been one of the top four causes of admission.

The birds most frequently injured by fishing line and hooks are brown pelicans, royal terns, laughing gulls, double-crested cormorants and osprey. Joanna added that their goal at the von Arx Wildlife Hospital is to care for injured, sick and orphaned wildlife and to educate the community on how to prevent these types of injuries.

Educating the community about the dangers of fishing lines and hooks is important because the injuries, suffering and death due to them are very real and significant. With education there is hope to change people's behavior and prevent injuries to wildlife.

Joanna also believes that there is a misconception on the part of the public, including anglers, that because there is a facility (von Arx Wildlife Hospital) that provides care for injured birds, the effects on the animal are often minimalized

and often disregarded. The reality, according to Joanna, is the bird endures pain sustained from the injuries inflicted by hooks and line entanglement, and they will continue to experience stress through their rehab process. And if the injuries are too severe, the bird has to be euthanized.

According to Joanna, their advocacy efforts aim to strike a balance between angling activities and the needs of wildlife. They want to promote ethical fishing practices and mitigate injuries when possible. She wants everyone to remember that “wildlife are fishing to survive,” and if they don’t catch fish, they will weaken and die. Most humans are fishing as a purely recreational sport.

Joanna added that injuries due to angling activities are just one pressure and danger these birds are facing. Lack of fish due to overfishing, red tide, harmful algae bloom, loss of habitat as well as other factors add to the stress on shorebird populations.

At the von Arx Wildlife Hospital, Brown pelicans are the species they focus on when discussing fishing line and hook injuries and their pelican admission numbers have continued to climb annually.

Besides birds there are reports of sea turtles and manatees caught in fishing lines. Often the monofilament rubs against flesh and bone, severing flippers, legs or wings as wildlife tries to break free.

If shorebirds are congregating near where you are fishing, choose a different spot that is clear of birds, to minimize the risk of accidentally hooking a bird. Also use barbless hooks and be sure to use the proper test line.

If you hook a pelican, please reel in the bird as gently as you can, cover the head with a towel to calm the bird and call the von Arx Wildlife Hospital at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida at 239-262-2273.