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Shelburne Free Press https://shelburnefreepress.ca/?p=13222 Export date: Tue Jul 23 9:15:08 2024 / +0000 GMT |
Beware of fishing line dangers Our environment, a place to be proud of and protect. Respect the ground you walk on. Keep it clean. Common sense is all it takes. If you have a picnic lunch use the provided garbage cans or take your garbage home. Properly recycle. It's easy. Going fishing? You break a line; have to change your line right there and then to continue on. No big deal. Think again. – it could be. That fishing line takes 600 years to break down. It is not something you leave around. Fishing line is deadly. Every year lives are injured and even lost due to entanglement in fishing line. I personally got caught up in left behind fishing line as I walked along a dyke. All loaded with my camera gear I was lucky I didn't go down. The lady I was with was able to help me, and in helping me out of that mess, we found on the other end of my fishing line was a young grackle fledgling. Mother frantically trying to get her babe to follow. It couldn't. It was stressed, panting and stuck fast to the reeds. It took us 40 minutes to get that little one free from start to finish. A nearby farm helped to get that tightly wrapped line off the little bird's leg. I now carry a little sewing kit in the rescue kit in my car. The reunion was great and all was well in the end, but if I had not gotten tangled up myself, that little bird would have died a horrible frightful death. A loon. Myself and 11 other people pulled that rescue together. Success. By then the loon was just a scoop away. No fight left. Hungry tired and totally wrapped up literally front to back. As time went on it got more wrapped up every day. The x-rays showed that loon had ingested a few fishing leaders and hooks. Not uncommon. Fishing line around its bill, tongue, wing and leg. Just recently a beautiful trumpeter swan was euthanized because of fishing line and infection. One of many. It wasn't found fast enough, and the worst I have seen was the little screech owl hanging entangled in fishing line hanging from a tree. Dead. What a horrible death that would have been. Frightened, flapping about trying to free itself, stuck fast. Struggling for its life. I can't imagine, and that probably ended a whole family as this was in nesting season. Heading out to go get food for its mate on the nest. Never returning. Female would have to abandon that nest. Everywhere I go where there is water I am picking up fishing line. Pop cans and coffee cups. All can be a trap. I have nothing against fishermen. I firmly believe a lot of people have no idea how dangerous this can be. How it can take a life so easily. An elderly person walking, your pets, anything and everything can get trapped and caught up in left behind line and garbage. Never fish were it is not safe to do so. Don't take the chance of getting caught in a tree were you cannot get that line down. It kills. Don't fish around power lines etc. If you get snagged hopefully you can retrieve that line. Obviously sometimes you can't. But just know, it is a killer. I would like to see municipalities putting out disposal tubes for fishing line in fishing areas. It works, people use them. With a sign to explain the reasons for not leaving it behind and why to be so careful. It is a simple fix. But in the mean time, if you find it, pick it up. If you change your line, take it home. Save a life. Be aware. Using lead sinkers: Lead poisoning. Please use non-lead sinkers and ammunition while fishing and hunting. You too are handling this lead as are your children, lead goes into your system every time you touch it. Swans and other waterfowl ingest lead every year while eating off the bottom of a wetland area. A death caused by lead poisoning is a long painful death. Lead does not break down. A lot of lives are lost every year. So keep it clean and save a life. By Jennifer Howard |
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Post date: 2015-05-13 19:38:43 Post date GMT: 2015-05-13 23:38:43 Post modified date: 2015-05-21 09:07:04 Post modified date GMT: 2015-05-21 13:07:04 |
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