Dangers of fishing line

[bigdave60dog]

I used to fish when I lived where ther were coarse fish.
I always used to -and still would go round the area collecting all of the half buried or hanging or just laying about fishing line.
I really enjoyed my sport and will again when I get chance. There really is NO excuse for leaving line on the bank where it can easily be collected.
However line lost on snags underwater will always be difficult as will line over deep swims in branches where recovery would be very dangerous.
I agree to see birds hooked up in trees is upsetting but by and large angling is a force for good in our inland waters.
Where I live we get seal and dolphins in discarded nets and ropes. There are literally tons and tons of rope, net, line and other plastic on our shores and on the sea bed.
Believe me when I say that discarded fishing line on river banks is a very small deal when compared with the thousands of fulmar chicks starving because their parents crops are stuffed with bits of plastic or the Logerhaed turtles starving with stomachs full of party ballons or plastic carrier bags.
I am considering moving inland because the plight of our sea life is too upsetting.
Dave

[Jaeviatrix]

It is true that the damage discarded, or even lost line causes pales into comparison with the carnage brought upon our sea life by commercial interests. They seem to be a very powerful lobby, who, despite the number of people horrified by things like whaling and the canadian seal hunt, the will seems to be lacking for us to take any legislative action against their destructiveness. Maybe people just arent as aware of the scale of the suffering to take action. Coarse anglers, by and large a good bunch when you get into the people who take it seriously,are let down by a minority who, while objectionable, are only conspicous because the animals their discards kill are visible in public parks!

Some fishing lakes are also awesome birdwatching sites, beautiful places to walk, and many anglers appreciate the beauty around them.

[tom00_uk]

diving off cornwall i came across a section of net that was lost to the sea ghost fishing, it had managed to catch 100's of spider crabs and a range of fish, and their incarceration and death was luring in more animals to become ensnared

[Jaeviatrix]

How sad. Were you able to move it? I imagine there are so many more about. There must be something legislative which could be done about this?

[Barjon]

Aww that is very sad. People just don't realize the danger of littering do they . Once i saw a dead swan that had flown into some overhead power lines. I know that can't really be helped, but it was also sad to see its mate alone on the lake .

Originally Posted by Jaeviatrix

How sad. Were you able to move it? I imagine there are so many more about. There must be something legislative which could be done about this?

I agree, the local council or park warden should have it as a job.

[Delf]

I think people fully realize they are causing multiple problems when they litter, they simply just do not care about anything but themselves, i blame bad parenting.

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by Barjon

I agree, the local council or park warden should have it as a job.

when i worked for the parks trust in milton keynes we used to run regular clean ups with our volunteers part of which involved taking the boat and outboard out on the lakes and retreiving all the hung up line plus floats, weights, hooks etc

it wasnt unusual to wind up with several hundred yards of line and 20 plus weights - we used to cut the line into short sections and bin it while weights, floats , and hooks would be distributed amonst colleagues who fished

[posie]

Ignorance it is....
Ballons have been mentioned before, and I was horrified to see on TV news that one Party of the Government used ballons to 'advertise' their party, they were filled with gas (the balloons) and let go into the air to eventually fall to the ground and choke some poor birds...As has been said, education must be the answer....Posie..

[bigdave60dog]

Hi Posie,
The main issue with balloons is not just birds eating them but other forms of sea life.
A deflated ballon apparently looks like jellyfish. Some fish as well as leatherback turtles live on jellyfish. These fill their stomachs with imdigestable rubberised plastic and feeling full do noit eat thorefore starving to death.
Birds do also suffder the same fate. Fulmars in particular are very vunerable tp all sorts of bits of plastic. they just don`t come into breeding condition or starve whilst trying to raise chicks. It is very distressing for those of us who live in the areas frequented by these caetures.
Dave