Kayak rescue saves swan tangled in fishing line, bird released to family

Hampshire: A male swan trapped in fishing wire in Langstone Harbour, Hampshire has been rescued by a pub landlord in a kayak and released back to his family.

The Sussex Volunteer Fire and Rescue Service (SVFRS) said its specialist team was called on Saturday to the swan, which had “a very large lure” caught between its beak and wing and was “bleeding heavily.”

With the rescue boat too far away, Adam Szczypior, landlord of The Royal Oak pub, used his own kayak to reach the bird. Szczypior said he knew the swan, its mate and their four cygnets, and that a quick intervention was needed.

“I saw the female swan try to help take the hook off,” he said. A regular at the pub brought a landing net to cover the swan’s head during the rescue.

With help from the bosun of Langstone Cutters Rowing Club, the crew secured the bird and took it to South Downs Emergency Vets for pain relief, before transferring it to Brent Lodge Wildlife Hospital.

After spending the night in care, the swan was “happily released back to his family” on Sunday.”It was an absolute pleasure to watch his family greet him upon his return,” SVFRS posted on Facebook.

The service warned that the swan “could have easily lost his life and his family of cygnets and mate lost their family member due to the carelessness of people fishing in the area.”

SVFRS, a self-funding group of 18 volunteers, said it handles about 100 call outs per month, with roughly half being technical animal rescues. On the same day, crews also freed a fox cub trapped between a shed and a wall in Portsmouth.