Juvenile bald eagle tangled in fishing line found dead at Raystown Lake

A juvenile bald eagle tangled in fishing line and lures was recently found dead along Raystown Lake in Huntingdon County, south central Pennsylvania.

“We’re saddened by the death of the eagle,” said Allen Gwinn, park ranger at the 28-mile long Army Corps of Engineers recreational lake next to a flood-control dam.

“They are an attraction and an attractive bird,” he said.

Discarded fishing line and other marine debris kills more than one million birds annually, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Often times, the lines that entangle the animals cause a slow death.

There are at least four active bald eagle nests along the lake, which is also a popular boating destination, Gwinn said. The lakes attracts close to 1.5 million visitors a year.

It’s unclear if the juvenile eagle recently fledged from one of the lakes’ nests or was an older juvenile just passing through, Gwinn said.

“We get a lot of people who come to take photos; the highlight of the boating day is if you can see the eagles,” he said.

The dead eagle was retrieved by the Pennsylvania Game Commission during the weekend of June 13 and 14. The agency is responsible for the protection of the formerly endangered raptor.

The Corps has signage encouraging anglers to properly dispose of their fishing line in garbage cans.

Presently, there are no recycling tubes for fishing line on the property.

In the Pittsburgh area, the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania has a fishing line recycling program and has installed the recycling tubes at popular fishing areas such as North Park Lake, Deer Lakes Park and other locations.

To learn more, visit Audubon’s website.