Feeding The Birds

[jlloyd]

Went out this morning for a yakka catching session and a try for kingies/tailor in the harbour landbased off a wharf east of the harbour. Nothing exciting occurred but one thing occurred which I have dreaded for a while as a result of fishers feeding cormorants and other birds whilst fishing for a laugh. I was sitting around when the drag went off and I thought, great I'm on finally when a cormorant burst from the water with my yak and rig in its mouth and tried to fly off but was hooked .

I reeled the cormorant in and had to battle its claws and beak (which I can say is bloody sharp) to unhook a 3/0 hook from its beak . Once this was done I noticed and even larger hook in its mouth which I tried to remove but the bird managed to escape and was sitting nearby drying itself when I left.

I have previously seen people fishing off this wharf feeding these birds as a joke but all this does is attract the birds to anywhere people are fishing and then the birds run the risk of being hooked and the people fishing getting annoyed as the birds pinch the bait.

All I can say is that it is quite disturbing seeing a bird hooked up and with the push for nature reserves we don't need more ammunition against the general fishing community (ie destruction of other wildlife). So if birds are annoying you don't feed them and move on if they threaten to pinch baits.

[jamesds]

Nice that you tried to do something about removing the hook instead of cutting the line. Totally agree with you on not encouraging the birds - I love nature and it would break my heart to accidentally kill a bird as well as giving ammunition to those that want to ban fishing in the harbour.

Yesterday there was a pelican eying up my s.p. and that put an end to my session (as it should). He would have taken it - now, extracting a hook from a cormorant is doable, but a pelican - no way!

Edited December 31, 2008 by jamesds

[jlloyd]

Nice that you tried to do something about removing the hook instead of cutting the line. Totally agree with you on not encouraging the birds - I love nature and it would break my heart to accidentally kill a bird as well as giving ammunition to those that want to ban fishing in the harbour.

Yesterday there was a pelican eying up my s.p. and that put an end to my session (as it should). He would have taken it - now, extracting a hook from a cormorant is doable, but a pelican - no way!

I think unless you had 40lb braid you would even get the Pelican close enough to try to pull the hook out.

Thankfully I have handled plenty of chooks, ducks and even turkeys so it wasn't too hard to keep the cormorant quiet (cover its eyes helps). If it had been a pelican this morning I would look like a pelican trying to remove the hook