![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Florida-pelican-Luca-Nichetti-shutterstock_2555067493-scaled.jpg\")
A brown Pelican in Key West, Florida Credit: Luca Nichetti \/ Shutterstock<\/p>\nA brown Pelican in Key West, Florida Credit: Luca Nichetti \/ Shutterstock<\/p>\n
Fishing line is the\u00a0leading cause of death for Florida pelicans<\/a>, and causes thousands more deaths among birds across Tampa Bay annually. You can make a difference by joining\u00a0Tampa Bay Watch<\/a>\u00a0(TBW) and\u00a0Audubon Florida<\/a>\u00a0for the\u00a032nd Annual Fishing Line Island Cleanup,<\/a>\u00a0October 18 to 26, or leading a cleanup at a pond in your inland neighborhood.<\/p>\n The TBW\/Audubon event will be self-led, in which participants will travel to their designated location by personal boat or watercraft to target coastal areas where fishing lines have been caught in the shoreline vegetation. Inland, the Raptor Center of Tampa Bay is calling for neighborhoods to create their own cleanup events to prevent the needless deaths of birds, including bald eagles, sandhill cranes and barred owls.<\/p>\n \u201cTampa Bay is home to nearly 20,000 pairs of colonial waterbirds that nest in vegetation along our coast,\u201d said Jeff Liechty, manager of Audubon Florida\u2019s Coastal Islands Sanctuaries. \u201cMost of the year, many of these locations are closed so that the birds are not disturbed, so it\u2019s important that we take advantage of this window before they begin nesting.\u201d<\/p>\n The islands collect vast amounts of fishing line annually \u2013 over 10,000 feet are collected some years \u2014\u00a0 when fishermen accidentally cast into mangroves or hook a bird rather than a fish, then cut the line instead of trying to free it, Liechty said. Brown pelicans and cormorants are most affected, but roseate spoonbills, little blue herons and tri-colored herons also are likely to be killed by fishing line.<\/p>\n The coastal cleanup began in 1993 when Peter Clark, president and founder of Tampa Bay Watch, and Rich and Ann Paul from Audubon were conducting a bird survey on Passage Key and realized how many birds had been killed by monofilament fishing line.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat was happening is that a fisherman would hook a bird and then cut the line, so the bird flew back to its nesting colony with a dangling line that became snared in the vegetation,\u201d Ann Paul recalls. \u201cIt\u2019s a miserable death, and then a long line trailing behind the bird means that not only does one bird die, but others become entangled.\u201d<\/p>\n Then, without both parents actively caring for these young birds, the chicks are doomed too.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we finished the survey, we were all sitting on the boat with our sandwiches and Peter came up with the idea of a volunteer activity that would get teams of people to visit the islands to clean them up before nesting season began,\u201d Paul said. \u201cWe\u2019re still at it, but the best choice is always to\u00a0prevent the problem by not cutting the line.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n To register for the TBW\/Audubon event, contact Rachel Arndt at\u00a0mailto:rarndt@tampabaywatch.org<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Not just a coastal problem<\/p>\n While the TBW\/Audubon event focuses on coastal islands where colonial birds like pelicans, roseate spoonbills and cormorants nest, fishing line is a problem at nearly every waterbody across the region, said Nancy Murrah, president of the\u00a0Raptor Center of Tampa Bay<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe rescue organizations we work with catch and release hundreds of sandhill cranes caught in fishing line every year. There is a great blue heron entangled at a pond in Bloomingdale right now that we are about to rescue, and we respond to at least a dozen barred owls entangled in fishing lines near rivers annually,\u201d she said. \u201cThen, just yesterday, Polk County Animal Control rescued an entangled wood stork.\u201d<\/p>\n Even bald eagles can be endangered by fishing line, she adds. \u201cLast year, an eagle apparently brought back a fish with a trailing line for their babies in a nest near New Port Richey. Someone had released a fish with a lure and fishing line still attached, so the eagle caught it and brought it back to feed its chicks.\u201d<\/p>\n When an osprey was entangled in a mess of fishing line over the Tampa Bypass Canal near the interstate earlier this year, it died before rescuers could reach it. \u201cThere are still lines and lures hanging from a cable over the canal,\u201d Murrah said. \u201cIf someone had called us earlier, it\u2019s possible that we could have saved the osprey.\u201d<\/p>\n Although Murrah hasn\u2019t planned a formal cleanup, she encourages neighborhoods to get together for quarterly cleanups to protect the birds in their communities. \u201cAlong with fishing line, even a small amount of trash can kill a bird,\u201d she said. \u201cFor instance, sandhill cranes really like ear buds but they can get stuck on their bills and the birds can\u2019t eat until they\u2019re removed.\u201d<\/p>\n Small plastic toys, particularly brightly colored pieces, can be fatal for anhingas. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen them with pieces of a My Little Pony stuck in their beaks preventing them from eating, and I saw a gopher tortoise try to eat a piece of blue plastic because it thought it was food.\u201d<\/p>\n Deaths among local wildlife, particularly those caused by fishing line and other types of litter, are reaching epic proportions. \u201cIt\u2019s overwhelming for the rescue groups out here,\u201d she said. \u201cWe all need to come together to prevent these kinds of needless deaths.\u201d<\/p>\n How to prevent entanglements<\/p>\n In the event that you accidentally hook a bird when fishing, don\u2019t cut the line! Reel. Remove. Release. Here are the steps to follow according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission as part of their\u00a0\u201cDon\u2019t Cut the Line!\u201d educational campaign<\/a>:\u00a0<\/p>\n If the bird is feisty, it is likely healthy enough to RELEASE. Point its head towards the water and step back while you release the bird. Let the bird take off on its own. Sometimes birds shake their feathers out, assess the situation, and then are ready to fly. Other times, they just take off. Either way, this represents a successful release.<\/p>\n Enlist others for assistance if possible.<\/p>\n REEL the bird in slowly and evenly. Don\u2019t try to shake the bird loose by jerking the line \u2013 it will inflict additional injury to the bird.<\/p>\n If fishing from a pier, make sure that the bird remains on the water until a net, such as a hoop net, can be used to lift it onto the pier. Birds that are reeled up onto piers can be seriously injured, or can potentially damage fishing equipment.<\/p>\n Wear sunglasses to protect your eyes. Take extra care to protect yourself when handling long-billed wading birds and hooked-billed cormorants.<\/p>\n Firmly grasp the bird\u2019s head behind the eyes. Then fold the wings up gently but firmly against the bird\u2019s body so that it can\u2019t flap its wings, and hold the legs. Hold firmly but don\u2019t strangle the bird. If it is a pelican, you can hold the beak but keep the beak slightly open so the bird can breathe.\u00a0<\/p>\n Cover the bird\u2019s head with a towel, hat, shirt, or other cloth. This will calm the bird and make it easier for you to remove the line and\/or hook.<\/p>\n REMOVE the hook by cutting the barb and backing the hook out. If the barb is embedded in the bird\u2019s flesh, push the hook through until the barb emerges from the skin and then clip the barb.<\/p>\n If the bird is entangled in line, use scissors, clippers or a knife to gently cut the line. Place the cut line in a monofilament recycling bin, or cut the line into small (< 3-inch pieces) and place in a lidded trashcan.<\/p>\n Carefully check the bird over for other hooks or line and remove them too.<\/p>\n This post first appeared at Bay Soundings<\/a>.<\/p>\n Subscribe to Creative Loafing newsletters.<\/a><\/p>\n Follow us:\u00a0Google News<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0NewsBreak<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Reddit<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Instagram<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Facebook\u00a0<\/a>|\u00a0BlueSky<\/a><\/p>\n This article appears in Oct. 16 \u2013 22, 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n \t