A loon entangled in fishing line was rescued on Pemaquid Pond on Aug. 19.
Diane Orff, of Waldoboro, and her mother Bonnie (York) Orff, of Damariscotta, kayaked on the canal out to Pemaquid Pond. On the return trip, Orff spotted something acting funny in the water. She got out her binoculars, and the two women discovered an adult loon acting strange.
“It was swimming a funny way and hold its head funny,” Orff said. The two women tried for over an hour to catch him, then managed to corral him in the canal. “It was quite a job to catch it. I knew if we couldn’t catch it, he would starve to death,” Orff said.
The loon climbed up onto the peat bog next to the canal and laid down. “At that point he was obviously tired. He had some careless person’s discarded fishing line wrapped up around its beak and wing. He was so wrapped up (in fishing line) that there was no way he was getting it off,” Orff said.
With cell phone in hand, Orff attempted to get a hold of the Maine Warden Service. She had no pen and paper in the kayak so she was unable to write down the emergency numbers that dispatch wanted to give them. Orff then called her brother-in-law, Scott Martin, who is a game warden out of Patten. Martin contacted local warden Joey Lefebvre of Damariscotta.
Lefebvre arrived quickly and was met by York, who led him into the canal where the loon had beached.
“It was amazing,” Orff said of how Lefebvre caught the loon. “He floated up to him, hovered over him with his hand, and reached down and picked him up and put him in the boat. Lefebvre was afraid Orff would get hurt if she helped him, but after learning she had been a veterinary technician for 15 years, invited her into the boat to help.
“I told him I didn’t mind getting hurt if it could save the loon,” Orff said.
Upon closer examination, they discovered the loon had fishing line wrapped around a wing, his back, and his beak, and line in his mouth. It took Lefebvre and Orff 20-30 minutes to free the loon of the fishing line. They looked him all over and found no injuries, except a small, non-open abrasion under one wing.
“He asked if I wanted to do the honor of letting him go, and I said yes. I held the body and he, the head,” Orff said. “The loon swam about six feet away from the boat, and gratefully stretched its newly freed wings and vocalized how happy it was. He went under water and came up and made a loon cry like ‘I’m free, I’m free.’ He was happy and acting completely normal.”
“I was so happy. It was just a wonderful feeling to know you helped save him. We would like to say a special thank you to game warden Joey Lefebvre for helping us free (the) loon. Without his help the loon would have surely died a horrible slow death from starvation,” Orff said.
“It frustrates me,” she said. “It is a sad, sad thing. Every single year you see articles” about loons being entangled in fishing line. “My mother and I pick up fishing line and brand new lures. If we can reach them in kayaks, then fishermen should be able to reach them with their boats.”
Orff and York plan to collect every bit of discarded fishing line and lures they find and make a collection of them.
To fishermen, Orff pleaded “I beg that if your line gets caught up and breaks that you will think about this story and will do everything in your power to remove and discard it properly so this will not happen to another innocent animal.”
Orff also suggests that paddlers and boaters put the warden’s dispatch number in their cell phones so if they need help they can get it quickly. The number is 1-800-452-4664.