Facebook commentary: Fishing lures and waterway trash vs. birds
A little thing where I share comments I'm sharing in the world of Facebook
The fishing community definitely has a problem with slobs, always has, as do most outdoors activities.
Spent line, long lines cut off at the reel after snags and backlashes, and general trash left at fishing sites are the biggest issues. Litter bugs: I’ve never understood the apathy or pure negligence that breeds them.
Still, I’ve left behind more than a few lost baits—and I do believe there is a hatchet in a sheath hanging in a tree in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area somewhere that might still have my name on it. I was definitely upset when I realized I’d left it behind. I’ve spilled packs, tipped canoes, lost more than one AA battery, come home with 14 shotgun hulls after firing 15 rounds, you name it. I’ve left some marks and I’ll own them.
These days I’m primarily a fly fisherman and I use barbless hooks. I regularly pick up after other anglers. That should be a habit for us all. But that doesn’t absolve us of any responsibility. I still lose stuff in streams that could potentially harm wildlife. That doesn’t mean I need to stop fishing.
The majority of anglers are ethical outdoors enthusiasts. Most rail against trash as much as any others who see it lying around.
“Leave no trace,” should be the nearly unattainable goal for all. But the idea that one less-impactful outdoors activity is preferable and others should stop activities that might cause some harm is in the long run unsustainable—and perhaps unreasonable.
Always, there is a balance and call for ethical behavior when we are outdoors. We can’t pretend we have zero impact on our environment even if we are not a consumptive user, at least not as long as we’ve carved out a space for our own survival or got to where we’re going in a car or use electronic devices.
On the whole, fishing license dollars and the value of fishing as one of our nation's most common routes to introduce people to the outdoors, wildlife conservation and appreciation of wild spaces far outweighs the tragedy of a few accidents. If not for fishing as a youngster I might well not be where I am today. Anglers as a whole do not simply “take, take, take.”
I like to think, I hold a hope, that today’s litterbug angler or wildlife poacher might still, with education or mentoring, be tomorrow’s conservationist.
In the specific case in this Facebook photo, The Great Blue Heron walks where the bait fishes swim, which is where anglers cast and sometimes lose their lures to rocks or other snags.
Crankbaits like the one attached to the bird in this photo are relatively expensive so it's likely this bait was something that was lost, not just "left lying about.”
Some of these lost baits will indeed inadvertently hook wildlife. Many others are lost and rust away. But lures like this one are things the vast majority of anglers will do everything they can do to retrieve.
Risk to wildlife should serve as added incentive for anglers make every effort to retrieve lures and broken lines, but it should not be cause to make people want to stop fishing or dislike those who do.
Litterbugs? Well, that’s a different story.
IF YOU WANT TO HELP MAKE A DIFFERENCE along our inland waterways, start documenting what you see (and preferably pick up as well). Check out the Debris Tracker app and help monitor and document what are the trash problems in our inland waterways by joining in the Mississippi River Towns and Cities Initiative.