A walk along the quiet shore of Gull Lake was more distressing than peaceful when amateur photographer Christina Armstrong saw a seagull with a fishing hook and lure stuck in its beak on Monday night.
“It was six inches long the whole thing. I bet you that (hook and lure) was three inches. That’s pretty big for a seagull and for it to be hanging on its beak,” said Armstrong, of Red Deer, on Tuesday.
“I love birds and I love the wildlife and it just hurts when I see that.”
She was walking along the shore with her daughter when they saw a man looking at the injured gull. She suspected it couldn’t fly with something so big thing hanging off its beak.
“I’ve never seen anything like it, a bird having something in its beak. How it got there, to me, it doesn’t make sense.”
She contacted Medicine River Wildlife Centre to get help for the gull and wanted to warn people about the dangers of fishing hooks to wildlife as well as people.
“This is a provincial park. What if that hook wasn’t in the bird and was in the water, and myself, or my kids, were in there and the hook got caught on our foot.”
“I want prevention and awareness for everyone,” Armstrong said.
Carol Kelly, executive director of Medicine River Wildlife Centre, said staff did investigate but could not locate the gull.
“The big lure hanging from its face looks like a fish. That’s why the gulls go for it. That’s what fools them,” Kelly said.
“They are made of rubber and they are painted and shiny and they look like a little fish, like a little minnow, so it’s super attractive to anything that eats little fish.”
She said a few weeks ago another gull at Sylvan Lake was found injured with a similar lure.
“It was actually fishing line wound around its beak and the fishing hook was actually in its leg. We got that out and he was released a couple days later.”
If people aren’t careful with lures then wildlife will try to eat it, she said.
“We’ve got loons, pelicans, gulls, there’s all kinds of things that can eat it. At Gull Lake they have the western grebe up there and the western grebe is a little fish eater and the western grebe is an endangered species. So people need to look at the bigger picture.”
She said about three weeks ago a western grebe was tangled there in fishing line.
“It was completely tied up, legs and all and body. All we did again was just take the fishing line off and it was on it’s way.”
The wildlife centre sees about two to six similarly injured birds each year. Other wildlife centres would also get calls, Kelly said.
“What’s out there that’s not getting caught, or reported, I’m not sure.”
szielinski@reddeeradvocate.com
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