Water Wildlife

Danann Gallagher
Hook, Line, and Seeker
Jim Arnosky


When your out fishing alone sometimes you can get lonely or bored sitting by yourself. However a constant presence by the water is often a bird of some kind like a heron or a seagull. Watching birds and other wildlife is something a lot of fishermen do in the downtime they have. Jim Arnosky stated in his book Hook, Line and Seeker, "On the water, birds are your constant companions. even when you think you' re all alone wading in a forest stream or drifting offshore in a boat, there are birds to keep you company" (Arnosky 144). Now birds may seem like a strange companion for one to have however being alone with nothing but birds to watch can make you see them as companions and will make you focus on some of the interesting behaviors birds exhibit. This can include how they interact with each other, Which can be very aggressive at times, to simply how they can just sit and float on the water for extended periods of time.

However other then just giving you something to watch birds also serve functional purposes as well. one of the main ones is to eat the fish scraps leftover after you clean the fish. Now if you've never cleaned a fish before you might wonder what people do with the parts that they don't eat. The truth is most people simply give it birds. Arnosky added to this point with this statement, "And later when the boats return to port and people clean their catch, there are always birds to take the scraps" (Arnosky 145). Now at first this might not seem like a big deal, however birds preventing fish carcasses from building up is really important as it truly helps in keeping the water cleaner and a more enjoyable environment.

Do you think birds truly have a major purpose in keeping the water clean and more enjoyable, or do you think there simply annoying pests that don't exactly serve a purpose?