Recreational fishing-related injuries to Australian pelicans (Pelecanus conspicillatus) and other seabirds in a South Australian estuarine and river area

Abstract

113 seabirds treated over 5.5 years had 132 fishing-related injuries that included entanglement with line only (N=35/132; 26.5%), entanglement with line and an associated hook (N=47/132; 35.6%), embedded hooks only (N=34/132; 25.7%) and foreign body ingestion (N=16/132; 12.1%). The percentage of fishing-related injuries ranged from 0.9% for banded stilts (Cladorhynchus leucocephalus), pacific gulls (Larus pacificus) and masked lapwing plovers (Vanellus miles), to 59.3% for Australian pelicans (Pelecanus conspicillatus). Entanglement and/or embedded hooks were present more often than injuries from ingestion; i.e. 97% (70/72) of pelicans had entanglement and/or embedded hook injuries; of these 35/72 [48.6%] were entangled with line and hooks, 24/72 [33.3%] had embedded hooks alone and 11/72 [15.3%] were entangled with lines only, with only 3% (2/72) having injuries from ingestion. A count of sea and river birds in close proximity to fishers revealed that the majority were pelicans (33.9%), compared to pied cormorants (28.6%), silver gulls (21.4%) and black swans (16.1%). Regular removal of discarded fishing material along local shores resulted in no reduction in the numbers of entangled or hooked seabirds. It appears likely, therefore, that such injuries may result from seabird proximity to active recreational fishing, rather than from entanglement in discarded material.