Barbed fishhooks are more dangerous.
Fishhooks are routinely made with barbs to hold them in place. Immediate additional injury results from attempts to remove this type of hook.
For example, for the publics’ safety this lure was removed from the carcas. This took 5 minutes, during which the rhamphotheca (the chitinous sheath of the beak) came off, and the webs of both feet were torn.
When you fish it’s safer for everyone - you, your companions, the birds and the undersized fish you’ll want to throw back so they grow bigger - if you bend back the barbs on your hooks. Use needle-nosed pliers for this. Attend your line at all times. When something bites just keep tension on the line and you’ll land your catch.
Turning the carcass I was shocked to see the cause of the gull’s death. After being hooked in the mandible (nose) chasing this lure, the gull struggled to get free and hooked both its feet on the other gangs.
The slightly brown color of the feathers establishes this as a two-year-old Western Gull, Larus occidentalis.
There are usually two or three dead birds on this beach at a time.
In nature most organisms are on the brink of starvation, and half do starve to death. Specifically, half of birds die by the end of the first winter, before they learn to feed themselves.
This death is unusual, though. This bird is older. From its pink feet, size and the time of year, 6-29-02, I know it’s a Western Gull. I wonder what killed it?
The Turkey Vultures have done their thing. They slit the skin, ate the muscle, and left the rest. In a few weeks the body won’t be easily noticed, any more. In a few months it will be reduced to microscopic pieces, part of the detritus that filter feeders eat.
(Photo By Carol Medine Moss)
(Photo By Carol Medine Moss)
(Photo By Carol Medine)
