The Anna Maria Island Sun Newspaper

Vol. 14 No. 50 - October 8, 2014

reel time

Sarasota Bay Watch conducts cleanup

Reel time

rusty chinnis | sun

Wyatt Kaighin, Skye Ehrhart and Steve Traves clean discarded
fishing line from the New Pass bridge fenders during the
Sarasota Bay Watch Cleanup

On Oct. 4, members of Sarasota Bay Watch teamed with Save Our Seabirds, the Sarasota Sailing Squadron and Audubon Coastal Islands Sanctuaries to conduct a monofilament clean up in Sarasota Bay. The event was organized to remove fishing line from mangroves during the season when birds are not nesting.

The occasion was a great success despite threatening weather that cleared just in time for the volunteers to depart. During the morning project, participants collected yards of line, trash and recyclables from Sarasota to Manatee County.

The day’s activities began at Sarasota Sailing Squadron, on City Island where Sarasota Bay Watch event coordinator Ronda Ryan and volunteers had assembled charts of areas to be cleaned up, tally sheets and equipment including gloves and safety glasses as well as bags for garbage, recyclables and line.

Ryan went over procedures, highlighting safety, answered questions and then Sarasota Bay Watch President Jeff Birnbach thanked the volunteers for showing up under potentially adverse conditions before pointing out the importance of the event. A representative of Save Our Seabirds then took a few minutes to instruct members of the group on the proper method of disentangling a seabird once it gets caught in fishing line. He also showed participants a procedure for safely transporting injured birds.

I had the pleasure of spending the morning with media members who were covering the clean-up, and we followed Skye Ehrhart, Wyatt Kaighin and Steve Traves as they cleaned line, terminal tackle, lures and trash from the New Pass Bridge fenders and docks along the bayou on the south end of Longboat Key.

Due to the threatening weather, there weren’t as many volunteers present as in years past, but that didn’t dampen the determination of those that made their way to the Sailing Squadron. As it turned out, it was a perfect day for cleaning the bridge fenders as there was very little boat traffic and a slow moving tide. The trio of volunteers ended up with a bag full of line, terminal tackle, lures and trash that had accumulated on the bridge.

This was a particularly good location as it’s a popular spot for anglers as well as birds. As if to highlight the point, we encountered a cormorant that had line tangled around its bill and neck and was obviously in trouble. Although we did our best to rescue the bird it flew away before we could get to it.

The next stop was the bayou docks where the trio once again found fishing line, trash and a great blue heron that had its legs tangled in and trailing line. Both birds drove home the importance of this cleanup, as we could extrapolate the number of birds that are affected by fishing line entanglement given the scenes we encountered that morning.

The event ended back at the Sailing Squadron where the line, trash and recyclables were collected and the volunteers were treated to a free lunch. The line collected will be measured and become part of a project being conducted by a special Entanglement Group which includes Sarasota Bay Watch. Everyone is reminded that they can and should remove and dispose of discarded fishing line when they see it and take precautions when fishing not to add to the problem.

If you see a bird in distress call Save Our Seabirds at (941) 388-3010 or Audubon Coastal Island Sanctuaries at 813.623.6826. You can find out about future events or join Sarasota Bay Watch by going to www.sarasotabaywatch.org


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