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White-bellied Sea-Eagle rescued and released

Thursday, August 18, 2011

On the far south coast of NSW a few months ago a call came in to WIRES for someone to rescue a Sea-Eagle caught in fishing line. It was way down at Wonboyn Lake, about 40ks from Eden and well away from any raptor rescuer.

A thoughtful and concerned person had found it sitting on a bush track a few hundred metres from the beach but about 8 kms from the caravan park where he was making the call to WIRES. He was only passing through and not a local and needed to be on his way shortly.

The directions were a bit confusing, however it was obvious that not only was the Sea-Eagle a long way from a WIRES rescuer but it was also going to be fairly difficult to locate.

A call was put through to Kerry one of our experienced raptor rescuers and the closest one available. She was able to go but it would take her at least an hour to get to the caravan park, let alone the eagle.

It occurred to Judy who took the call to try a ranger from NPWS who was often down in that location. To her delight he was only 15 minutes from the caravan park and willing to assist. As it was not going to be too long the person who found the eagle was happy to wait for the ranger and take him to the eagle.

Within a short space of time the Sea-Eagle was freed, not from fishing line as first thought but from rope with a buoy and sinker attached. The bird, was only a young one, and very thankfully suffered minimal injuries from the experience and was able to be released.

Please think about how rubbish can impact wildlife and encourage those around you to do the same.