After watching a pair of nesting bald eagles at Canonsburg Lake, Washington County, for about eight years, Dianne McKay was distressed to learn one of three eaglets had a fishing hook stuck to its bill with a fishing line and a bobber.
Monofilament fishing line kills anywhere from thousands to more than 1 million birds annually, according to the Audubon Society and other sources.
Birds become entangled in the line or ingest it with hooks and lead sinkers. Some slip out of the lines, hooks and debris. Others succumb to a slow death by starvation, according to the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania.
“I was scared. It’s hard for the birds to get them out on their own and I was hoping and praying one of the parents would get it out for the chick,” said McKay, a Washington, Pa., resident, avid angler and one of more than a half dozen photographers who watch the nest regularly.
One photographer documented the fishing line with a hook and bobber on one of the eaglets around May 12, she said.
Luckily, within a week, Canonsburg nest watchers found that the young eagle was no longer ensnared. They assume one of the parents or the chick dislodged the fishing gear.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission investigated the incident and is keeping an eye on the birds.
Andrew Kopec, a state game warden covering Washington County, viewed the photo with fishing line sticking out of the eaglet’s beak. He believes the bird likely expunged the fishing gear.
“Fishing line and gear can be a silent killer. It harms songbirds, eagles and other wildlife. It can be really destructive if left on the landscape,” he said.
Kopec has seen fishing lines discarded around Canonsburg Lake and, especially on a power line near a bridge that is covered in fishing line litter.
McKay and other photographers are documenting the eagles’ progress daily.
Twice in the last two years, bald eagle parents at the nest on U.S. Steel Irvin plant property in West Mifflin have brought in fish to feed their young with fishing line and tackle attached. A live webcam documented the drama.
In both cases, the young birds were spared.
“Last year, the eaglet known as ‘Hop’ was scavenging a fish by himself at the nest. You can clearly see the hook. Everybody gasped on chat and then Hop dropped the hook,” said Don German, U.S. Steel Irvin plant manager.
This year, the eaglet named Lucky became entwined in a fishing line attached to a fish delivered by one of the parents to the nest. The female eagle, Claire, broke the line with her talons and feet and untangled Lucky, German said.
An avid angler, German advises others not to cut their lines when a fish is hooked or throw a fish back in the water with a hook. “You are doing a disservice to the raptors that feed on them,” he said.
The problem is pervasive throughout the country.
Fishing line and tackle killed two bald eagle nestlings and has been found in two-thirds of all bald eagle nests in Arizona, according to the state's Game and Fish Department.
“Biologists remove these lethal hazards from nests and/or entangled nestlings every year,” the agency stated on its website. “Discard any fishing line properly in recycling containers or at fishing stores.”
The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission and others requires anglers to dispose of their fishing line and gear and not leave it in natural areas where there’s wildlife.
It’s against the law to throw, leave or deposit litter, debris, or trash on land along waterways, said Mike Parker, communications director for the commission. If found littering, anglers could get hit with a $75 summary violation plus $25 per piece of litter and additional legal costs, he said.
Anglers should deposit their discarded fishing line in recycling bins or take it home, he said. The commission and others maintain the collection bins.
Most anglers are courteous and respect landowners, Parker said, but when they leave behind trash including fishing line, “that angler who chose to litter shouldn’t be surprised if their favorite fishing spot isn’t available next season because they didn’t take time to clean up their trash.”
The Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania has installed fishing line recycling bins at 13 locations in the region including Canonsburg Lake, according to Rachel Handel, an Audubon spokeswoman.
The bins are maintained and emptied by volunteers, including ASWP’s Master Birders. The fishing line debris is recycled by the Berkley Conservation Institute for fish habitats to attract fish and encourage plant growth in lakes, reservoirs, piers and fishing docks, Handel said.
Monofilament fishing line can exist for years in the environment, posing threats to wildlife, she said.
“The simple act of cleaning up after yourself when fishing not only keeps the area safer for birds and other wildlife, it makes the experience better for the people who come after you,” Handel said.
Every month, Carol Holmgren treats some animal entangled in fishing lines or impacted in other ways such as swallowing hooks or having them embedded in their beaks and feet. Lead sinkers also can cause lead poisoning in the birds.
She is the executive director and head licensed rehabilitator for the Tamarack Wildlife Center in Crawford County, which specializes in treating raptors, particularly bald eagles, and other wildlife in Western Pennsylvania.
“We’ve had multiple great horned owls get entangled in fishing line and are left hanging,” Holmgren said.
An ensnared great horned owl was rescued at Presque Isle State Park this past winter. Tamarack treated and released the bird.
Lead, a neurotoxin, continues to be a health problem for the birds.
“There are no safe levels of lead for these birds," Holmgren said. "They have acidic stomachs and any ingested lead gets metabolized very quickly.”
Tamarack's most dramatic case recently was a migrating common loon found on a road about two months ago. During treatment, they x-rayed the bird and found a hook in its intestinal tract.
The hook was too deep for Holmgren to remove, so a surgeon in Cleveland removed it and the bird made a full recovery.
The surgeon's time was donated and grants and private donations paid for an x-ray machine at Tamarack.
“These are long-lived birds with a low reproductive rate and their population is in decline. Saving a single loon is significant,” she said.
On the bright side, when birds such as eagles recognize a foreign object at their nest or with their food, they will spit it out, Holmgren said.
“It’s a normal part of their biology,” she said. “They will ingest materials they can’t digest and will cast a pellet once a day.”
But a bird can ingest a hook and damage its intestinal tract, sometimes causing infections.
“If they are lucky, it gets into the acidic portion of their stomach, which dissolves the hook,” Holmgren said.
Mary Ann Thomas: mthomas@post-gazette.com
First Published: May 30, 2024, 9:30 a.m.
Updated: May 31, 2024, 4:46 p.m.