Marine biologists working at a research station in Florida noticed rhythmic tapping at their glass entry door.
From atop the concrete stoop, the wild brown pelican was pecking its thick beak against the window glass.
Upon opening the door, marine biologists discovered that monofilament fishing line was encircling the right wing of the seabird.
The metal treble hook with double barbs was lodged into the wing tissue under the bird’s heavy feathers, whereas cactus spines were stuck into its left foot.
Responding to an unexpected visitor at the facility door
This particular injured bird had made its way a quarter of a mile inland from the St. Andrew Bay that was located in the vicinity of the laboratory building located in Panama City.
The researchers, who were typically responsible for tagging big sharks and sawfish, quickly changed their role to accommodate this new situation.
Three researchers kneeled near the entrance of the laboratory and held this relatively calm bird tightly in order to prevent further injury to its joints.
Immediate restraining of the animal helped it not to force this double-barbed hook even deeper into its tissue.
Cutting embedded steel hooks and tangled monofilament lines
The removal of double barbed treble hooks is quite challenging due to the fact that reverse barbs when pulled backward cause tearing of the delicate muscle tissues.
Biologists removed the exposed metal barb using heavy wire cutters before freeing the hook shank that was smoothly passing through the muscle tissues.
Several feet of monofilament line were unspooled from around the right wing joint so that the tight binding could be freed. Desert cactus spines were extracted from the left webbed foot of the bird using precision tweezers.
Evaluating bird recovery and immediate release into the wild
Now released from restriction, the brown pelican rose up onto the concrete stoop and flapped its rumpled feathers.
The scientists observed that the wild animal extended its primary wings to their fullest.
The brown pelican took off into the open sky and flew right back to the coastal bay.
This indicated that prompt emergency assistance ensured proper muscle activity. Prompt response turned the potentially fatal entanglement into a successful case study.
Examining widespread threats from discarded fishing gear
Invisible monofilament fishing lines pose an ongoing and potentially lethal threat to coastal seabirds that feed around the shores of America.
Plastic fishing lines become entangled around delicate wings and legs of seabirds, resulting in slow death from starvation, infection of tissues, or drowning in coastal estuaries.
Fishermen cut off tangled lines when the sharp hook becomes caught on feeding birds, leaving seabirds wrapped up in synthetic ropes that do not decompose on their own.
State wildlife management agencies encourage fishermen to carefully unhook the birds and cut off the sharp barbs before freeing them back to nature.
Proper disposal of equipment prevents countless unnecessary deaths of seabirds along the coast.
Discarded monofilament creates hidden death traps along the coast, according to NOAA Fisheries.
Recognizing limits of isolated wildlife rescue encounters
Direct observations in the field indicate that human intervention was able to save one individual entangled brown pelican from being permanently physically disabled.
Injured animals visiting laboratories randomly is an exceedingly rare event that will not be able to solve larger marine debris problems.
It is unknown whether or not the brown pelican came to human-made structures on purpose or if it just wandered inland in its search for food.
One of the solutions to protect coastal birds is public education and monofilament line recycling.
Continuous human intervention by anglers will be needed to reduce plastic gear pollution.
One rescued bird is a good thing, but to stop plastic pollution, everyone needs to take action.
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