The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service committed to exploring options to address the injury and death of Tampa Bay birds at the Sunshine Skyway Fishing Pier State Park.
The commitment was stated in a May 3 letter to conservation organizations that called for federal help as the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission pursued new regulations for fishing at the state-owned park.
“The issue of bird entanglement and the associated injury and mortality at the site is concerning,” the FWS stated in a letter to Elise Pautler Bennett, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity in St. Petersburg.
In late February, the state proposed a rule change to modify fishing regulations and directed staff to refine the proposal to protect bird populations before a final hearing.
Over the past two years, volunteers with Friends of the Pelicans have rescued more than 2,300 birds and documented more injuries and deaths, leading to declines in the rookeries in the Tampa Bay National Wildlife Refuge.
Conservationists say the fishing pier is deadlier to birds than other piers in the state, partly because the pier’s length and height make it difficult to rescue hooked or entangled birds and partly due to the number of fishing poles and the maze of lines in the water the birds must navigate.
Options under FWC consideration include education requirements, seasonal gear restrictions,
limiting the number of sets of hook-and-line fishing gear, gear restrictions on a portion of the pier and deterrents.
“The impacts from pier fishing to sea birds are very real,” said Barbara Howard, president of Friends of the Tampa Bay National Wildlife Refuges. “We see these impacts on the national wildlife refuges in Tampa Bay and see our nesting numbers dropping. … Unfortunately, the problem will not resolve itself. It will only get worse if we don’t intervene.”
Representatives from Howard’s organization and other conservation groups, writing to the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service in December, questioned the impact of the state’s possible changes and asked the federal government to enforce the Migratory Bird Treaty Act to protect pelicans and other Tampa Bay birds.
The conservation groups said to date no state agencies or the concessionaire on the pier — Pier Associates — had “taken adequate steps to avoid, minimize and mitigate the overwhelming amount of take caused by the operation of the Skyway Fishing Pier. Without the service’s enforcement of the MBTA, we are gravely concerned that the continued operation of the Skyway Fishing Pier will continue to contribute to the catastrophic decline of coastal bird populations in Tampa Bay.”
The FWS response, signed by Jerome Ford, assistant director for the Migratory Bird Program in Washington, D.C., states that the service is committed “to exploring options with others to find a resolution” and “the issue will require the collaboration of many entities.”
The letter does not state a commitment to applying the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which prohibits the purposeful and incidental take of migratory birds without prior authorization from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Ford encouraged the conservation groups — FTBNWR, the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Pelicans, Conservancy of Southwest Florida and the American Bird Conservancy — to share their ideas with Mike Oetker, acting Southeast regional director with the service.
Their ideas, as outlined in their December letter to the FWS, include instituting a one person-one pole limit, closing the north end of the south pier, arranging for regular removal of line under the pier, limiting gear to one hook per line, contracting with a wildlife rescue organization to hire two full-time rescuers and prohibiting:
- Line-cutting when a bird is hooked or entangled;
- Anglers from leaving baited poles unattended;
- Using treble hooks, sabiki rigs and other multi-hook gear.