Emergency surgery to remove fish hooks from Black Rock cormorant
A bird has undergone lifesaving surgery after it fell victim to a common threat at Black Rock. And anglers have been put on notice. SEE THE PICTURES
Inner South
Don't miss out on the headlines from Inner South . Followed categories will be added to My News.
A distressed cormorant found tangled in fishing line with a hook in its beak at Black Rock has undergone lifesaving surgery at Melbourne Zoo.
The native Australian pied cormorant was rescued by the zoo’s marine response unit on the foreshore in late January.
X-rays show the bird had swallowed a fish hook, which had moved deep into its digestive tract.
Another hook was lodged in the cormorant’s face with the attached fishing line wrapped around its beak.
The hooks were removed during an intricate operation which lasted two hours and the bird spent 10 days recovering at Melbourne Zoo’s vet department before being released back into the wild at Black Rock this week.
Marine response unit officer Maddi Chambers said the bird immediately took to the water, swimming out to a group of other pied cormorants.
“He was bathing and sunbaking and doing all of those natural behaviours that we would want to see on release,” she said.
“This was definitely a life-threatening injury because the line was actually wrapped around the beak — there is no way that bird would have been able to catch a fish, let alone swallow a fish and eat, not to mention the hook in the digestive system.
“We were really glad that we were able to intervene when we could. Our amazing vet team were able to perform the surgery, it went really well, and they were really happy with how quickly the bird recovered.”
Ms Chambers urged anglers to properly dispose of fishing waste to help keep native wildlife — and people — safe.
“We are all using our beautiful coastlines at this time of year, and we want to encourage people that are doing water activities such as fishing to dispose of their waste responsibly, not leave it behind.” she said.
Anyone who sees a marine animal in need of help is asked to call Melbourne Zoo’s Marine Response Unit on 1300 245 678.
Designer’s Brighton home has basement turntable, sauna
Designer Kirsty Ristevski’s latest ‘Golden Mile’ project is packed with features, but it’s the unexpected ones that make this $7m home ‘one of a kind.’
‘Karen’ from Brighton’s family pub let disabled teen play pokies
A security lapse at the Duke of Edinburgh Hotel in Brunswick — owned by the family of Melbourne’s infamous Covid-era Karen — led to a disabled boy playing the pokies.