A man who was angrily confronted by an animal activist while fishing has rescued a stranded seagull.
Lincoln, who hosts the YouTube channel Land Fish TV, was walking through Brighton Breakwall in Melbourne, Australia, when he spotted a bird thrashing off the back of the boat.
Crossing over the jetty to take a closer look, he found the seagull struggling just centimetres above the water with a thin plastic line stuck in its beak.
Lincoln, who hosts the YouTube channel Land Fish TV, was walking through Brighton Breakwall in Melbourne, Australia, when he spotted a bird thrashing off the back of the boat (pictured struggling while stuck at the back of a boat)
Lifting it onto the boat and holding its head down, Lincoln used pliers to snip the wire before unravelling it from the bird’s wings and releasing it back on to the jetty.
‘It bit me a couple of times but it was just a few little pinches,’ the fisherman said.
‘The bird would have been pretty stressed so I don’t blame him for trying to fight back, even if I was trying to save him.
‘I have helped free a few other birds from fishing equipment before, but never in the same situation as this.’
Lincoln said he guessed someone cast a baited line and cut the line because they couldn’t get it back.
Lifting the seagull onto the boat and holding its head down, Lincoln used pliers (left) to snip the wire before unravelling it from the bird’s wings and releasing it back on to the jetty (bird pictured struggling right)
‘When hooks are left with bait on them by the small amount of irresponsible fisherman, birds come to eat it,’ he said.
‘I think as fishermen we all need to ensure we don’t leave any fishing equipment or rubbish in the environment.
‘And if you see an animal in need, it often only takes a few moments to save a life so do it.’
It comes after the fisherman (pictured) filmed the bizarre moment he was interrupted by an activist and accused of breaking the law while wetting a fishing line
It comes after the fisherman filmed the bizarre moment he was interrupted by an activist and accused of breaking the law while wetting a fishing line.
Lincoln was at Albert Park Lake in Melbourne with a friend when he was confronted by the woman.
The woman accused the pair of ‘disturbing wildlife’ and slammed them for fishing near swans.
The woman (pictured) accused him and a friend of ‘disturbing wildlife’ and slammed them for fishing near swans
Lincoln filmed the woman’s outburst and posted it online to his YouTube channel.
‘Have you read the sign? The sign down there that says it’s an offence to disturb wild life?’ the woman says, also holding up a phone to film the interaction.
‘We’re not disturbing wildlife,’ Lincoln replies.
‘You’re fishing, you’re trying to kill fish,’ she says.
‘There’s baby swans here and swans here trying to raise their young and you’ve got your plastic fishing line out, do you think that’s very appropriate? Do you even care?’
‘I respect wildlife, I catch and release fish and I follow the law,’ Lincoln calmly says.
‘I don’t know how you live with yourself’ the woman then says before storming off.
Albert Park Lake, just kilometres outside of Melbourne’s CBD, is a popular spot to fish as it is stocked with golden perch and rainbow trout.
In a statement released by the Victorian Fisheries Authority in 2018, the government body revealed it was legal to fish in the lake with a licence and boasted about releasing 15,000 silver perch fingerlings.
Her outburst came as animal activists become more vocal in recent months, stepping up protests and infiltrating farms.
National protest: Dozens of activists chained themselves to machinery at Carey Bros Abattoir at Yangan in remote Queensland and demanded the release of three lambs
Earlier this month, a group of vegan activists stormed a popular butchers in Perth with signs showing pictures of slaughterhouses.
Their leader, in a white T-shirt, told customers: ‘We are here to shine a light on an inherently cruel industry.’
The protesters then laid flowers under the display cabinets to ‘remember’ the animals.
Since the start of the year farms in Australia have been invaded by protesters, with some chaining themselves to machinery.
In March, about 150 activists stormed Queensland Millmerran Lemontree Feedlot as a distressed farmer looked on.
About 20 animal activists allegedly chained themselves at the Yangan abattoir in Queensland in early April.
The demonstrations – criticised as ‘shameful and un-Australian’ by Prime Minister Scott Morrison – were loosely organised by a network of meat-free activists to mark a year since the release of a vegan documentary, Dominion.
Vegan protesters, meanwhile, who storm through farms will now be slapped with fines of up to $440,000.
Vegan protesters who storm through farms will now be slapped with fines of up to $440,000 (pictured: protesters at the Lemontree Feedlot in Millmerran)