I have gotten used to watching out for abandoned hooks in the dirt and rotting fish that died when someone failed to free an undersize fish without killing it. But this latest discovery was a new one.
Last week I had noticed a line dangling from a waterlogged small tree. Winter was very snowy, so many trees are still standing in water where normally it would be land. Anyway, I didn’t think much of it rather than the usual disgust at slobs.
Yesterday, something brown the size of a pingpong ball was dangling from the line, a couple feet above the water. I assumed it was trash that some slob had stuck to the hook because he was too lazy to haul the trash out. Nope. It had dark, glossy, leathery, frail-looking…folded wings. Short brown fur elsewhere. A tiny, tiny face with upright triangular ears. Two really tiny black dots for eyes.
A bat, a baby based on its size. It must have thought the hook on the dangling line was a bug, in low dusky light. And it got hooked.
Maybe carrying a knife while paddling isn’t a bad idea, I could cut those damn lines that slob fishermen frequently leave. I only wish I knew WHICH slob did it, so I could put the cut line and HOOK in his vehicle, preferably on his car seat!
The trash is bad enough, but this debris killed a beneficial animal that we are seeing fewer and fewer of.
I go one step further. I retrieve said gear, then politely ask the next angler I see on land while paddling by to please dispose of it. I have yet to have one refuse.
I carry a kid’s butterfly net, a trash compactor plastic garbage bag (they are small and heavy plastic) and a pair of stainless steel nailclippers when I paddle in heavy fishing zones so I can retrieve and remove anglers’ trash – there is quite a bit in some of our lakes. At least one of our state parks has a special box near the boat launch for depositing scrapped lines, hooks and lures.
Nailclippers work really well for cutting monofilament (and plastic packaging rings) and are safer for using on a struggling animal than knives or scissors because you can get close to the skin without hurting them. They fit easily in a PFD pocket – my pair has a grommet in the handle to which I attached a cord loop with a foam floater ball so it won’t sink if I drop it and so it is easier to find and grab from the pocket.
@willowleaf said:
I carry a kid’s butterfly net, a trash compactor plastic garbage bag (they are small and heavy plastic) and a pair of stainless steel nailclippers when I paddle in heavy fishing zones so I can retrieve and remove anglers’ trash – there is quite a bit in some of our lakes. At least one of our state parks has a special box near the boat launch for depositing scrapped lines, hooks and lures.
Nailclippers work really well for cutting monofilament (and plastic packaging rings) and are safer for using on a struggling animal than knives or scissors because you can get close to the skin without hurting them. They fit easily in a PFD pocket – my pair has a grommet in the handle to which I attached a cord loop with a foam floater ball so it won’t sink if I drop it and so it is easier to find and grab from the pocket.
I have used nailclippers to cut nylon ties that attach tags to new clothes. Great idea to carry one for clipping abandoned lines, because it works better than a knife. It didn’t occur to me that the next victim might still be alive, and I would not want to injure it OR make it so frightened that it bites me.
I was thinking I should suggest a fishing-junk box to the state park for this lake. I didn’t think any place had one. Not only might it encourage some fishermen to put their trash in it, other park users who are ticked off by this debris would gladly make the stuff visible and quantifiable to park managers!
So sad. I do think it’s a very good thing that you are so bothered by it Pikabike. I remember freeing one bird that was struggling and flopping around at a put-in that had just one loop of monofilament around a leg…he/she was definitely screwed without help…and also seemed calm and non-aggressive as I cut the line. I would like to see laws banning use of non-biodegradable materials for all types of fishing but I know it won’t happen and I may be a bit skewed in my beliefs since I sometimes rescue drowning bugs while paddling. I think Buddhists believe that higher beings have an obligation to protect lower beings…seems logical to me. In the real world I’d like to see big painful fines for the pinheads that leave this type of litter since even pinheads respond to punishment.
@Sparky961 said:
I go one step further. I retrieve said gear, then politely ask the next angler I see on land while paddling by to please dispose of it. I have yet to have one refuse.
Agree. Especially younger fisherman. Since I usually have a collection of floats and bobbers by the end of any lake paddle around here, many kids are happy to take the line to the disposal bucket in exchange for some free gear. Even had one great Dad mention to his son “this is why we try to always get our line back - other people shouldn’t have to clean our junk.”
And in the 20 years I’ve had a knife on my PFD, monofilament is the only thing I’ve ever been entangled in. I like my Benchmade H2O Fixed. It has a hook cutter excellent for cutting line (and outstanding for deveining shrimp too, but that’s another story).
Then we can talk about the mylar balloon, bottles, and feet of commercial fishing line/rope I picked up from the barrier beach on Martha’s Vineyard this weekend.
Later in the summer it is quite common to find honey bees that for some reason have crashed into the water. They’re still alive and struggling, so I will lift them out of the water with my paddle and gently set them on the bow of the boat. After a time, they dry off and fly away. It probably deprives a fish of a quick meal, but we need the bees more than the fish do. I do not provide the same service for hornets, yellow jackets and wasps, but then they don’t seem to have the same difficulty that bees do.
About the fishing gear: Generally I rescue it and will offer it to a young fisherman, but a lot of the time there is no one around, so I take it home and give it to my son-in-law when I think about it. Right now there’s a pile of it out there in my shop.
I called the public information officer for state parks and left a msg describing what I had found. He texted me a reply saying he would get some PR out ASAP.
Waiting with bated breath (yes, it is BATED, not BAITED) to see what happens. Even if the intentions are acted on quickly, will people be more conscientious about removing their trash, without the big stick of monetary fines?
If a box for accepting cut fishing lines and stray hooks is not installed, I’ll suggest it again. That way, even if fishermen don’t properly dispose of their own trash, other people can demonstrate how much of that crap those guys leave.
Not surprisingly, one big motivation for fishermen to not discard big wads of scrap line is that they know the damage that it can cause to the drive-shaft seal of an outboard motor. Of course, most bank fishermen are either too poor or too young to be motorboat owners, and for them, that type of selfish motivation isn’t much help. And sadly, sometimes there just isn’t much a person can do about lost line, such as situations where they would need the tree-climbing ability of a squirrel to get it back.
“Waiting with bated breath”: I think this is only about the third time in my life I’ve seen someone use the right word to describe waiting while anticipating an outcome. Maybe the rest of them eat worms for breakfast.
If you find an ensnared great blue heron or great egret, control his head first. I read that they will go for your eyes and that beak can penetrate into your brain.
I love the idea of a dedicated box for fishing trash; it seems to emphasize how dangerous the stuff is…like the box for used syringes in the doctor’s office.
I hope I get the chance to rescue a blue heron properly. I remember seeing one with an arrow in it. On local lakes I have found that they eventually get comfortable seeing me and the dog and let us get closer and closer over time since we mean no harm, and the dog seems to understand it too.
In my experience, GBH that I see at a particular lake, or arm of lake for bigger ones, do get used to seeing me paddle by. They are skittish and flighty at first, then seem to recognize either me or my boat. Maybe both.
Even so, I would be wary of that long bill and big wings! Good warning, String.
I don’t know how I could safely free a bat. Maybe a bat rescue organization has advice about that. They’re probably gonna say “Wear thick gloves.”
That is another reason I carry the butterfly net (better than a fishing net since it has a longer handle and finer mesh.) Besides being handy for skimming trash (and occasionally treasures) out of the water from the boat, it is handy for safely constraining a small animal while you remove an entanglement. I did have to damage a net once when a frog that I had snagged to remove line it was tangled in got one leg poked through the mesh and struggled so much I could not free it – I used my clippers to cut a gap in the mesh until it was released. But the bamboo handled nets are cheap – I’ve gotten them at Dollar Tree and at those kiddy krap kiosks right inside the entry doors of Target stores for $1 or $2. You can even buy them in bulk at some party and novelty stores. Also good for removing wasps and bees that sneak into your car at the launch site.
That must’ve been some spider thread! By revive, do you mean it had fainted or was breathing too fast from its own efforts to fight free? Or something else? Kudos to you, and nice pic.
Hummers have such a high metabolic rate, I’ve heard they have to feed almost continually – I wonder if going into a torpor when they are under stress is a survival reaction?
Good question! As I said, I thought it was dead at first, until I noticed some movement. Since I found it in my shed, I’m sure the hummingbird was caught in the web the day or night before, when I had left the shed door open. I cupped it in my hands for awhile for warmth before I mixed up the sugar water.
