The great blue heron watched closely, as great blue herons do. But this one wasn't perched in the distance, it was regally watching from just a few feet away.

This 4-foot-tall bird stood motionless on Pass-a-Grille's Merry Pier in St. Pete Beach, Fla., while six white egrets paced close by. Two men were fishing in the Gulf of Mexico and one, Greg Wells, left his bait bucket uncovered.

Wells threw a net over the side of the dock, turning his back on the bucket.

The heron crept closer, one eye on the angler, one eye on the bucket.

Birds, particularly herons and egrets, are not typically this comfortable with people. But these birds have become accustomed to getting their meals directly from anglers. Some are hand-fed. Others steal fish from right under an angler's nose, at their peril.

Wells pulled his net out of the water and shook it on the pier. One small pin fish fell onto the wooden dock, and he quickly placed it in his white plastic bait bucket.

"They'll sneak right over there and help themselves," Wells drawled in his West Virginia accent as he shook his net a second time, catching the birds' attentions. "They're just moochers. They don't even work for it."

Florida's seabirds have adapted to easy meals on piers and along the shoreline. As the birds get tamed, Tampa Bay bird rescuers see more than 1,000 fishing-related injuries per year. The "mooching" habit is passed down to offspring, creating generations of birds who can't feed themselves.

"They just associate everything about fishermen with food," said Damen Hurd, wildlife rehabilitator at the Pelican Man's Bird Sanctuary in Sarasota, Fla. "Over a period of time, [the birds] hear voices and think there's food down there. They're not stupid. They see a food source and they go down there."

Worse, young birds mimic their parents.

"They never learn to hunt on their own," said Melissa Dolinsky, director of rehabilitation services at the Sarasota bird sanctuary, adding that starved birds are brought in regularly during the fishing and tourism off-season.

The birds' adaptation to the easy food source has led to birds dive-bombing bait when it's thrown into the water. Hurd said the birds think it's another handout and often get tangled in the lines and caught by the hooks.

It's unnatural, he says.

"They would never even come near people or consider bait on the end of the pole an option if people didn't feed them," he said.

Garett Hubbard, the 22-year-old captain of the Miss Pass-a-Grille deep sea fishing boat, has hooked more than a dozen birds since he was eight years old.

 "It's a pain," he said. "You never want to hook them and it's sad for the bird."

Hubbard's most memorable bird-hooking happened while fishing at the Merry Pier. He baited his line, set his pole down and walked away. While his back was turned, a pelican swallowed his bait and got hooked. The pelican started swimming away with pole still attached.

He jumped in the water to get the bird and was able to remove the hook.

Karen Benzel, public affairs director at the International Bird Rescue Research Center in Cordelia, Calif., agrees that it's unnatural. She says seabirds, especially herons and egrets, typically stay at least 10 to 20 feet away from people.

"They are very wary of humans and in Florida they've become a lot more habituated to humans," she said.  

If a fisherman reels in a bird and either takes out the hook or calls local wildlife rescuers for help, the bird will most likely be fine. Wildlife rescuers assist in unhooking or untangling the bird and will take it in for a medical evaluation and treatment, he said.

But some anglers go with their gut instinct and cut the line, freeing the bird with yards of fishing line dangling from their wings and throats.  

The bird then gets tangled in the line, which can wrap tightly and amputate legs or wings, or cause irritations and infections. Often, the line gets snagged on a post or a tree and the bird injures itself while trying to break free. The ones who can't free themselves starve, Hurd said.  

Hurd said birds often come in with more than one hook attached to them, which isn't just bad luck.

"There's a reason," he said. "Fishermen are feeding them too much."

More than 1,000 birds are brought to the Sarasota bird hospital each year with fishing line and hook injuries, Hurd said.

Dolinsky said helping a hooked a bird isn't easy. About 80 percent of Florida's seabirds are gentle, but they are still wild enough to defend themselves.

Pelicans have the gentlest bite and usually stay calm once reeled to the dock. The bird to watch out for is the great blue heron, which in addition to its hard bite will try to stab the handler in the head, she said.  

She recommends covering any bird, especially its eyes, with a towel or shirt before trying to handle it in any way.

According to Hurd, tourists are more to blame for this bird taming than local fishers, but the problem can be solved at the local level if docks inform more people about not taming these wild animals.

"You'll see that if you stop feeding [the birds] and mind your business and keep your bait covered, sooner or later they will not see that area as a food source anymore," he said.

For more information on the Pelican Man's Bird Sanctuary and proper procedures for dealing with birds injured by fishing lines and hooks, visit their Web site or call your local wildlife rescue organization.

Back to "The Beach" | Back to "On the Beat" | Back to the Poynter Summer Fellows main page