Wake Up Call

Landcare Illawarra hosted an event on 16 September 2015 as a call to action and to inform people of the devastating impact rubbish and marine debris has on wildlife. Environmentalist Tim Silverwood spoke for an hour about the downfall of our environment since the "easy lifestyle" began in 1955. Tim is founder of "Take 3" whose initiative it is to take 3 pieces of rubbish when you leave our beaches, waterways or parklands. They are sponsored by Taronga Zoo and are partners with Tangaroa Blue, Plastic Free July and Surfriders. He spoke of things such as tiny plastic beads in hand creams and body cleansing lotions, chemicals in Bakelite products, thin plastic film in some tea bags which break down in hot water - yep and then you drink it!

Research has shown that 8 million tonnes of plastic per annum goes into the ocean. He showed slides of debris in the Philippines, USA, Bali and a devastating major spill of plastic beads in Hong Kong - ever seen a beach with plastic sand? A very sad picture taken by a diver off Bali in December 2014 of a Manta ray surrounded by floating plastics was also shown.

Research from the CSIRO indicates that in the near future every seabird will have plastic in it - its already over 30%. They are the ones that are not killed outright as their bodies are blocked. 100% of shearwaters washed up on Lord Howe Island had plastic in them.

Another interesting talk by Lachlan Fetterplace and Matt Rees of Fishthinkers followed. Both marine scientists, they showed a video of a lab study to see if plankton would eat plastic beads - and in doing so would be shooting this up the food chain to humans which is already impacting Inuit people. Slides also of a beached turtle and dolphin with plastic in the gut. Ten people from Australia and New Zealand recently went to Cape York and in a five day 6.5km beach walk picked up and catalogued 451m of fishing line, 310 commercial remnants, 151 ghost nets and 650 toothbrushes! They also filled 14 bags with what should have been recycled.

Australian Seabird Rescue South Coast Branch co-ordinator Kirsten Hort was also a guest speaker and spoke of our never-ending problems with sea and shore birds affected by human rubbish.

Another speaker from Surfriders showed shopping bags they made from recycled materials.

The evening was certainly a "wake up". What monsters we have become through the years? Why are we letting this happen to us? Its ruining our lives and nature’s creations round us.

I'm not giving up - are you?

Please take the time to look at these websites and have a rethink of what's around your home and talk to everyone you meet about this problem.

Betty

www.take3.org.au

www.rechusable.com

www.surfriders.org.au

fishthinkers.wordpress.com

‘HOOKED!’

Easter Sunday morning, sunshine was interrupted by a call to Australian Seabird Rescue from a resident, Dave, at the local mobile home village, reporting a pelican on the island with its wing down and unable to fly.

Onto the phone to Sam, one of our invaluable hovercraft owners, I asked if he could pick me up and take me to the bird.  Sam had a mate, Bruce, visiting from America, who came across and waited on the shore while Sam and I went to collect the poor thing.  The picture is compliments of Bruce.

Betty & Sam rescuing a pelican with a broken wing.

On inspection, the poor bird not only had a break, but a nasty wound at the site.  There is no doubt it was a serious hook injury (I have seen many, sadly).  Somebody has hooked the bird and just yanked so hard to get their 20c hook back, they have snapped her wing.  So, straight to the Greencross Vets, thankfully they are opened on Sunday, to be euthanized.

Thank you Sam for helping me save her from a horrible slow death.

If only…. you know, everyone – it really is so easy to stop, think and assess the situation before causing this sort of damage with a tragic ending.

Betty

UNLUCKY

Egret found with broken wing.

This dainty little bird, an Egret, somehow got herself in trouble.  On a calm Saturday night a call came in to Australian Seabird Rescue, from the Port Kembla Rail.  A worker had found her hiding in the bushes.  Not a mark on her and absolutely snow white, unfortunately her left wing was broken.  So strapped up warm and safe for the night the outcome was never going to be good.  One wonders how she managed to hurt herself - although this type of bird is quite common, they all have a place in the ecosystem and we should be ensuring all species a future.

Betty

STOLEN

Baby Grebe

This poor little ball of fluff (a baby Grebe) has obviously been stolen from the nest by either a raven or raptor but then dumped ungraciously on the road way at the local council tip.

Searching the vicinity there was no sign of the parents, so I took him home, fed him up and tucked him in safe and warm.

Despite all my efforts, the poor little thing died (possibly form internal injuries) 24 hours later.  But being unmarked except for a bit of blood on the beak it was decided he was a great specimen for the Australian Museum so off he went the next day.  At least he will be on display and help educate the public about our amazing birdlife.

Betty

FRIDAY 13th

Who said Friday the 13^th was unlucky?   This female pelican pictured with team member Leonie certainly had luck on her side.

ASR team member Leonie with the Lucky Pelican

I was checking to see if a juvenile pelican that had hit power lines the previous afternoon (where he had landed on his back) was OK – he was – despite looking as though he had really hurt his leg – it must have just been jarred so he got off with a few broken tail feathers.  Australian Seabird Rescue co-ordinator, Kirsten and I monitored him for over an hour the night of his accident.

Anyway, while watching him the next morning, I spotted this female pelican looking very sorry for herself and unable to raise any of our members at that time, I asked a fellow launching his boat if he could help – unfortunately that frightened her and on an adrenalin rush she managed a short flight into the adjacent wetland which is inaccessible by boat.

Now desperate, I rang team member, Leonie, who had retired from major rescues after injuring her leg.  A great big thank you to Leonie for responding and with her past experience and after a short ‘chase’ was able to get the pelican on the kayak and safely bring her to shore – a big paddle in the wind.  She would have perished overnight with a cold snap in the weather being unable to retain her body heat.  LUCKY 13!  This particular wetland is quite shallow with smelly black mud so Leonie had to then get home and ‘scrubbed up’ to go to work.

Thanks, again, mate – the bird is now settled in care and with treatment will be back out there in about a week.

Betty

The Amazing Brown Booby

The amazing Brown Booby - found well away from her usual habitat

This beautiful and unusual tropical bird was found by our Australian Seabird Rescue branch Co-ordinator, Kirsten, and Team Member, Dallas, well away from her usual habitat - we can only assume with a sore wing she was caught in the big monsoonal trough in the new year.

The Boobys usually roost on coral cays, buoys or the rigging of ships – it is quite common for them to hitch a ride on a ship.  We went straight to our mates at SOSSA (Southern Oceans Seabird Study Association) for an assessment and under the care of Cannon & Ball Vets she was assessed as having some head trauma as well as a sore wing.  On the Sunday, and with no improvement, we decided to take her to Greencross Vet as Cannon and Ball Vets weren’t open and an Xray revealed no break but a lot of tissue damage.

Lindsay and Janice of SOSSA had a very good friend visiting, Damien, who is the assistant curator of the Northern Territory Wildlife Park, so he also looked at Ms Booby.  She was certainly being looked after and seemed settled for a few days on medication.  However, she became stressed and stopped eating and was totally disoriented.  We took her back to Mike Cannon and it was decided the head trauma showed little improvement and the kindest thing we could do was to euthanize her. Being such a beautiful bird she was sent by SOSSA straight to the museum in Sydney to be included in their display.

A big thank you to Lindsay of SOSSA, Mike from Cannon & Ball Vets, Heyn from Greencross Vets and Damien of the NT Wildlife Park for their assistance.  It was great to meet Damien being an ex NT girl and to hear an update on the Wildlife Park.

Betty

PORT LUCK

Pelican Port Luck!

Another very lucky lady!  She was terribly distressed and obviously in a lot of pain.  She couldn’t come out of the water so in went Australian Seabird Rescue Team Member, Oliver, who jumped on her, injuring himself and losing some skin off his legs and hand on the rocks.  The poor Pelican had a massive hook in the cartilage of her toe so she could not fly, swim, or put her foot to the ground.  It was feared her leg was broken so off to the vet – lucky again as there is only one vet open on Sunday.  X-rays cleared her of any breaks so a week in care to allow the muscle damage to repair and intensive medication she was back out where she belongs.  A nasty wound on her wing healed.  Avoidable trauma once again due to a thoughtless fisher person – it really is so easy to be careful. 

As a matter of interest these hooks were joined by a new invention – braided line – it is super strong and cannot be cut by ordinary scissors – please consider this when purchasing your tackle.

Betty