When longtime Walden Lake residents David and Michelle Pugsley decided to clean up the debris littered around Walden Lake, they were in for a shock.
In addition to the cast-off aluminum cans, plastic bottles and even a travel neck pillow, the Pugsleys, to their utter dismay, discovered three dead Anhingas hanging from trees, their lifeless bodies wrapped in fishing line. “I expected to find a dead bird but it was pretty shocking to find three in different locations,” said David Pugsley.
Nancy Murrah of Raptor Center of Tampa Bay, whose mission is to rescue, rehabilitate and release native Florida wild birds, isn’t surprised. “They have a serrated plate on the roof of their mouth that helps them hold onto slimy fish, so when someone calls and tells us there’s a bird with something on its beak, it’s usually an Anhinga,” she said. “We’ve pulled everything off their beaks, from human hair to My Little Ponies.”
Even monofilament fishing line, which can get wrapped around their beaks, bodies or wings, causing severe injuries, restricted movement preventing birds from flying, hunting or feeding properly and even death.
“One of the biggest urban threats to wildlife is carelessly discarded fishing line and trash,” said Murrah.
The Pugsleys, after spending hours collecting trash along the shore of the more than 60-acre lake while floating in their kayak, collected dozens of fishing lures and dozens of yards of fishing line.
Murrah’s organization witnesses firsthand the magnitude of the havoc wreaked by fishing line. “In the last two months we’ve rescued more than 50 sandhill cranes that were entangled,” she said. “Hardly a day goes by when we don’t get a call for entanglement.”
For Murrah, it’s a manmade problem with a manmade solution: practice safe and responsible fishing. Pack it in, pack it out and leave no trace by disposing of or recycling fishing line in proper receptacles. Some popular fishing spots, including Walden Lake, have monofilament fishing line receptacles near the water’s edge to use.
When they’re installed, Murrah said it’s the property owner’s responsibility to make sure they’re emptied on a regular basis.
“As a conservationist and in 12 years I’ve been doing this, the number of birds injured because of humans has increased exponentially because of encroachment upon their habitat,” she said. “For the birds in Walden Lake it was a preventable injury, a preventable death. It’s up to each one of us to do our part and be good stewards of the land.”
For the Pugsleys, who sorted the trash and threw it out with their garbage, it’s about protecting wildlife and maintaining their community. “We like to take care of the place where we live,” he said.
For more information about Raptor Center of Tampa Bay visit raptorcenteroftampabay.org or call (813) 205-1851.