"Fishermen who left more than 20m of fishing line, hook and float to become entangled around a swan have been condemned by wildlife rescue experts."


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/souther...ies/4293966.stm

TL - leon

quote:

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The swan was not injured during the ordeal and was able to be released back into the pond.

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Good job it wasn't a bit of sensationalist journalism, or anti-angling propoganda, eh?

Yes, it shouldn't have happened, but come on...do we see a BBC report every time a swan flies into a powerline? Or a bird gets hit by a vehicle?

What makes this ironic, in my eyes, is that the one time my wife rang the RSPCA to report a couple of swans sitting in the middle of the road, she was treated with what bordered on contempt and vowed never to bother with them again.

I telephoned the sanctuary at Egham about a sickly swan in obvious distress on my stretch of the Thames last year. Even offered to stick around and take them to the bird in my boat. No joy, not particularly interested.
A friend and I found two dead broadland swans in the reeds and a third in bad shape. Phoned the Broads Authority who put us onto the RSPA who promised to send someone up from Brandon immediately. Would we wait and ferry him out the birds? Five hours later no-one had arrived..we drove home and although they had my cellphone number we never heard a thing. In future I'll tell them that the bird is trussed up with a mlle of fishing line, that should get them there just as soon as their cameraman is ready.

But the truth is that anglers do leave yards of line on the bank. As a lure angler I retrieve yards and yards of the stuff from the water, from reeds and trees.

[ 30. September 2005, 09:41 AM: Message edited by: Peter Waller ]

And the truth is that birds fly into pylons, get killed by cars, pollution, etc...

Are you suggesting that, for example, we should tell kids to dive in a pond if they accidentally lose a bit of line?

In the grand scheme of things, this is an unfortunate incident that happens a very small percentage of the time. It happens - but does it really need reporting in our supposedly unbiased press each and every time?

If it does, I might start informing them every time I see a dead rabbit in the road. They'd have loads of local news to report in Suffolk right now

No, Elton, I'm not. Just pointing out that line is left behind, regretfully. And it is not just kids who loose line although I'd agree that over enthusiastic casting by youngsters does add its fair share to the problem.

Argyll's points are well made, spot on infact, but it is no good ignoring the fact that fishing line is a problem to wildlife.

'In the grand scheme of things, this is an unfortunate incident that happens a very small percentage of the time'

That's about the strength of it.

Neither of the two incidents that I reported, appeared to involve fishing line. But politics within the Beeb and the RSPCA make damn sure that fishing line incidents are reported in as lurid a fashion as possible.

Take this particular report... 'this was the most distressed swan that I've ever dealt with' Clearly he needs to get out on more cases, since had this swan been that distressed, it would have needed to be removed from the water and properly examined at a vets surgery. In fact it was released by our hero immediately and swam away.

Far more swans die from waterborne and landborne pollution and at the hands of do-gooders than the miniscule number that die from fishing related causes. Most birdlife deaths on my stretch of river are from winter starvation. When these birds are born, they immediately find a continual supply of discarded human food from the boaters, walkers and the riverside holiday mob. In the winter the river is deserted and birds not accustomed to foraging for natural food, simply starve.

Split shot, line, cars, farmers etc. All part of life's wonderful tapestry for swans. We seem to be looking over our shoulders all the time in case we make a small mistake and get dragged up before the beak.

At a lake near me there are two resident swans, or should I say there were.

They mysteriously went missing after a group of "travellers" parked their caravans in an adjacent field.

I wonder where they went :confused:

They obviously got tangled up in miles of discarded line and were taken to the vets by the "travellers" to be treated