Now…I am a long-time fisherman. Since I was a young boy, I have enjoyed throwing a line in the water and imagining the lunkers waiting to strike my lure. (I think it started with McElligot’s Pool, the fantastic Dr. Seuss book that my parents read to me and my sibs.) I have spent many fruitless hours fishing — and enjoyed every minute of it. But my lifelong love of fishing has taken some bruises lately, as it has become increasingly clear that many loons in northern Wisconsin die horribly each year after entanglement in fishing line. I discussed some such incidents last year, but we have already had a recurrence of the problem this summer.
The most recent casualty is the territorial male on Jersey City Flowage. We had become rather fond of this bird, whom we banded as a chick on Swamp Lake in 1995. Year after year he and his mates have reared chicks on the Flowage, taking advantage of the abundant marshy habitat and network of islands there. He is tame, permitting us to approach closely and identify him whenever we care to. I vividly recall an occasion in 2005, when I found him foraging with his big strapping chicks. Neither he nor his juveniles cared a whit when my canoe approached them. They all foraged peacefully, oblivious to me. Here is a photo — a rather poor one — that I took 
of the foraging family on that day.
Our team noted a month ago that the male had not returned to his territory in 2014. We were disappointed at the loss of cherished individual, but accepted that he had died over the winter or on migration or, perhaps, been evicted by another male this spring. Such are the perils faced by loons. But Marge Gibson of Raptor Education Group, Inc. notified us last week that her group had picked up a badly injured and emaciated male from a lake near Tomahawk, Wisconsin which turned out to be this male. He had swallowed two lead sinkers and, as you see, had become irrevocably entangled in the attached monofilament line. 
Although this bird had lost 25% of his body weight (down to 3400 g from his normal 4500 g) and was in desperate shape, Marge reports that the REGI staff were able to disentangle him, remove the lead sinkers, and get his weight back up to 3800 g with vigorous feedings. They were also able to repair his bisected tongue and restore blood flow to it. Recently, he was released near his old territory. Although it is always tricky to rehab a bird in such a weakened condition, we are allowing ourselves to hope that he will recover and will let you know what we learn of his health and territorial status. (He has lost his territory, and the new male there and his mate are nesting, according to Linda Grenzer, our tireless citizen scientist. So it will be a long road back for the injured male, even if he does return to health.)
I think that I will always enjoy the unique mixture of natural beauty, solitude, and occasional surge of adrenaline that I have enjoyed while fishing. But I will never again use lead tackle, especially now that there are many appealing alternatives. Help me spread the word about them!