“You don’t like seagulls, eh?” was the greeting I got from a fellow fisherman today. He told me someone saw and heard me being disrespectful to a seagull struggling for its life. THIS IS ABSOLUTELY FALSE! NOTHING IS FARTHER FROM THE TRUTH! THE TRUTH IS I SAVED THE SEAGULL!
For the record, here is what happened. On Sunday October 9th, I was fishing the Tamahi area. I heard shouting upstream. I saw a bird struggling for its life in midstream in the current behind a rock. I walked upstream to see a seagull caught on some line and float. Two fishermen, one on each side of the river, tried to cast to catch the snagged line. Both gave up. When I got there I could see the bird with line and a green float around it and it was biting at the float trying to free itself. I saw the bird regularly go under and knew it would not last long. I only had 10lb leader and knew it was too light but I wanted to help the bird which was struggling so valiantly. I cast, caught the snagged line, pulled, and broke my leader. As I tied on my strongest line , 15lb, another fisherman came downstream. On the first cast, I caught the line and surprisingly pulled the snag free. The bird floated downstream with my line still attached. I told the guy on the rock to pull my line in because I just couldn’t reel it in the strong current. The bird got closer and I asked him to let go, but my line came off. The bird floated downstream and fortunately to my side. I ran downstream and pulled the bird to shore. The bird bit me as I tried but was unable to cut the line. Frank (thanks again Fred), a guy I was just talking to came to help. He held the bird’s head with a bag while I cut all the line. We freed the bird, it had some damage to a wing but it walked and later swam in the water. FRANK SAID I HAD DONE MY GOOD DEED FOR THE DAY. THE GUY ON THE ROCK GAVE ME A THUMB’S UP AS I WALKED BY.
I write the above for two reasons. First, false things are being said about me. I have at least 2 witnesses who saw the above. Second, it is possible to do this to save some wildlife so keep this in mind.