A photo and a story...

[jprzybyla]

A couple of weeks ago I was in Apalachicola, Florida wandering around photographing whatever caught my attention. I took this photo of a single brown pelican on a post. It appeared he was sleeping. Today I got around to post processing the photos. To my distress it appears that the pelican has a fishing line attached. I did not notice it that day, otherwise I would have tried to contact someone to help it and remove the fishing line. I am amazed at the detail the camera and lenses captured only seeing the fishing line when viewing at over 100%.

The post processed photograph.



The enlarged original.

[rpcrowe]

It abosolutely gets me sick, the devastation caused by nylon monofilament fishing lines. It is bad enough when a fish or a snag causes the line to break but, many of the problems wildlife experience result from fishermen indiscriminently throwing away coils of no longer wanted line. Most fishing supply stores in California have boxes in which a fisherman can deposit the scrap nylon line. Just putting the old line in one's pocket or tackle box until a proper disposal place is found can save the lives of many sea birds and mammals.

[jprzybyla]

I agree with your comments, as with most plastics it either takes years to decompose of does not decompose at all. Fishing line and nets are a major problem. Just recently a whale was cut free from a net it had become entangled in. The disposal enclosures for fishing line are placed in Florida also, I have seen them on most of the fishing wharfs I visit. I believe as photographers appreciating and capturing the beauty around us that we are also environmentalists.