Seaside Seabird Sanctuary A brown pelican with a large fishing lure beside it. The key, Edwards said, will be enforcement of the new FWC rules, which also require an annual education requirement. But soft tissue injuries can be really complicated and lead to a significant loss of mobility.so immediate intervention or prevention is really the key' to helping the birds recover. She said a lot of the injuries are treatable and the birds can be rehabilitated, but 'at least 25 percent of the birds are euthanized upon arrival, depending on how severe the injury is.
We had a pelican that was dragging a skimmer along with it through the water, we’ve had a few different things like that,' she said. 'We’ll get great blue herons, snowy egrets or great egrets and occasionally, we’ll get skimmers or other shorebirds that definitely get entangled and trailing line on other birds. They treat about 500 injured birds each year. 'Sometimes we'll get birds that have three different hooks in their face, and their face is attached to their wing, just you know, trying to fight to get out of those so those can cause significant damage,' she said. Courtesy FWC lists the hazards to birds from fishing gear.