Tiny detail in dog walker's photo leads to 'unsettling' discovery
It wasn't until the photographer returned home that he noticed something 'unsettling' in his photographs of the osprey.
There’s a particular "squawk" that large fish-eating osprey make when they’re preparing to dive into the water to make a kill. It was enough to make one walker look up in anticipation. But there was something “unsettling” about what he saw next.
“I’ve got used to listening to the birds, you can hear them when they’re preparing to hunt. They get quite excited,” NSW man Anatole Zurrer told Yahoo News.
Zurrer had been strolling with his dog along the boardwalk, near the mouth of Cudgen Creek, a spectacular waterway south of Tweed Heads that opens onto the Pacific Ocean. Preempting a show from the raptor, he tied his dog to a post and pulled out his camera.
“I was hoping I was actually going to photograph it diving into the water, but it's a bit faster than me on my iPhone,” Zurrer said.
Photographer notices disturbing detail after returning home
His first picture is like something from a nature documentary, and captures the osprey leaving the water, carrying a stunned fish to its nest. The other two images at first appear to show the bird with a stream of water trailing behind it, but when Zurrer took a second look he realised it was something entirely different — the sad impact of humans on wildlife.
“It was only when I got home that I observed, no it’s not water, it’s fishing line,” he said.
A sign near the raptor's nest advises walkers along the boardwalk the species is vulnerable to extinction in NSW due to loss of nesting sites and feeding grounds. It also warns they become entangled in fishing line when collecting sticks for their nests or hunting.
"A female osprey from Kingscliff was killed by fishing line entanglement in 2011," it continues.
While Zurrer thinks most of the local fishermen know better than to discard their line, he’s seen strands dumped by tourists. He doesn’t think there is anything nefarious about their littering, and it's more just a lack of consequential thinking.
“They don’t necessarily recognise the ramifications of their behaviour. They leave fishing line, or a plastic bag on the ground and don’t necessarily think it’s going to end up in the creek,” he said.
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Wide-reaching impact of fishing line on Aussie animals
The osprey isn’t the only bird he’s seen impacted by fishing line. A month ago, one of the local pelicans was seen with an injury to its bill – a problem commonly caused by fishing line.
Discarded fishing line continues to maim and kill wildlife around Australia. And despite it being a repeated occurrence, some anglers still haven’t got the memo.
Last month, Yahoo News reported on a seagull left tangled in line by a fisherman in Western Australia, and dingoes on K’gari with hooks in their mouths and bodies.
In June, we told the story of a juvenile dolphin slowly dying in the Swan River after it became caught up in multiple strands. And a month earlier we shared confronting images of adult pelicans and a chick severely damaged by hooks.
Go back a year, and you can read our reporting on the impact of fish hooks on endangered sea turtles. We also told the story of people’s pets having to undergo surgery after ingesting fishing equipment.
The simple advice is if anglers cut line free or leave it on the shore, it has the potential to kill animals and birds. And baited hooks should never be left on the beach as they can and will be scavenged by creatures looking for a quick feed.
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