Another Brown Pelican maimed for life by the loss of a foot to fishing line at the Sunshine Skyway Fishing Pier State Park. It's death row for pelicans. Not only maimed for life but this little one will never be able to have chicks – they incubate the eggs with their feet. You can see where he probably had a treble hook embedded in his belly with line that wrapped around his foot, and the fishing line ended up cutting off the circulation and he lost his foot.
Sadly, we see young pelicans all the time out there with only one foot.
It's the "out of sight, out of mind" mentality. Hooked a pelican? No big deal, cut the line, and pelican flies away. "I'll never see the bird again". But the pelican flies away with 25, 50, 75, 100, we've even seen 200 yards of line hanging off of him... and he ends up hanging in mangroves, where he goes to rest, sleep, and nest... slowly dying.
The injuries, maiming and deaths caused by fishing line and tackle injuries at this pier are reprehensible.