Pied Shag with fish-hook and line embedded in its neck. Injuries caused by discarded fishing line and hooks are amongst the most common and serious for sea-birds. Image: Su Leslie 2019
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Zimmerbitch 
More often recently I’m thinking that any notion that humanity has evolved into anything sensible is wholly misplaced.
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I totally understand that, especially at a global level. Then I encounter someone doing something at a personal level, and I have a little bit of hope.
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You’re absolutely right. I’m being very grumpy lately. Have you seen this on YouTube:
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Thank you for that link Tish. I’m just off to watch it now. 😀
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Oh poor thing. How careless we (people) are.
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Oh, that is terrible. Poor thing. We are forever cleaning up hooks and fishing line from beaches and rivers. Some are snags in areas where it is difficult to retrieve them, but much is just carelessly discarded. Very distressing to see birds caught up in it.
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It was. I am used to seeing rubbish left behind by recreational fishers, but this was the first time I’d seen an injury from it first-hand.
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We most often see birds with fishing line wrapped around their legs and feet. The ones we don’t see are those that have already perished.
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☹️ and who knows how many there are.
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Hmm … so sad to see such selfishness. Thank you for sharing.
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It is; and there was nothing we could do.
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Things like this make my blood boil. Between fishing line and fishing lures, I have no idea how the birds make it out alive. This is sad. I hope someone was able to help this poor little one.
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It looked like the hook had been there for a while. Certainly the bird didn’t seem distressed by it; which is good I guess but it can’t be a healthy situation. I suppose if it gets infected and the bird becomes ill, someone may be able to pick it up and take it to the vet.
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Ugh. Apparently it’s horribly common.
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I read that. Humans have a lot to answer for.
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How sad that so little can be done about it! I prefer going fishing with my camera and capture the beauty of the world around me.
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Me too. I have enjoyed fishing in the past, but we were always so careful with our gear.
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Very sad indeed. However, it’s possible to lose a hook and there’s no way you’d ever be able to find it. Not necessarily carelessness, but terrible outcome either way.
janet
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That’s true Janet. What makes me sad is how much fishing-related rubbish we find out walking, especially on wharves. That is obviously laziness.
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True. I feel that way about trash in general. Just take it home and dispose of it properly!!
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I’m totally with you.
Our local community had a foreshore clean-up at the weekend — unbelievable how much trash was collected and what sort of stuff people dump. ☹️
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Poor thing! People are so thoughtless.
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Agreed. ☹️
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Nothing useful to add. It’s an awful sight, Su.
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It was very distressing. Though it looked as though it had been there so long the bird was accustomed to it ☹️
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Awful.
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This sort of stuff really pisses me off 😡
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Me too. I guess lines do snap and hooks are lost, but quite often when I walk on wharves, it’s obvious that people fishing g have just left their crap behind. ☹️
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Some fishers have no respect
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I can’t even look at this photo. It just tears me up to see the caption.
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We were both really distressed, and seriously wondering if we could have swum out and maybe picked the bird up to take to a vet.
The only small comfort was that the bird wasn’t distressed, which made me think the hook had been there for a while. The bird seemed otherwise healthy, so I can only hope it’s ok.
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You sound like me. Whenever I see any animal in distress, I want to save it—be it a bird, turtle, cat, dog. But sometimes especially with a wild animal you have to let nature take its course. It’s so painful.
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You’re right of course. All we can do is try to remove these sorts of hazards in the first place.
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Poor pied Shag! It’s just so awful what we do with being careless… 😯
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The only “good” thing, was that the bird didn’t seem too distressed— but I guess that means it had been lodged there for a while 🙁
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Ooh that makes me so angry!
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Me too, and I suspect the next time we see fishers being careless, my OH will have something to say about it. For a gentle man, he does intimidating quite well.
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