I don't know what its like in the United States but here in the UK the wildlife teams are always having to remove hooks and lines from swans, geese etc.
It annoys me how people who fish don't clean up after themselves.
Well I love fishing, my favourite hobby. And you cant help the Swans etc as you throw your bait out and hook out and they wont leave it alone. Annoying Vermin
i once hooked a swan by accident when it grabbed my bait, it didn't attempt to fly so i was able to very slowly pull it in to the bank where i sat across its back and was attempting to get the hook from its beak when an old woman came and started attacking me with her stick for trying to murder the swan
I love fishing, i don't freshwater fish much any more since i gave up the competition angling but i like to get down to the beach to fish whenever there is a good tide on a moonlit night. The picture of that fish with the blood pouring down its side is ridiculous, in 20 years of fishing I've never seen a fish bleed like that from being hooked, practically all freshwater fish are returned alive and no worse off for being caught, fish in commercial sport fisheries might be caught 3 or 4 times a week in the summer and still carry on feeding, and even in sport sea angling the majority of anglers practice catch and release only taking home one or two fish for their dinner.
You'll find that good fishermen do clean up after themselves and don't leave hooks and lines laying about, just as in fish keeping there are good people and bad people who don't give a damn about the environment and its these few bad ones who give us a bad press. I've got a cardboard box full of old line and jars full of old rusting hooks that i wont throw away because it can damage animals at the land fill sites. Anglers are the eyes and ears of the environment agency, fishermen are very tuned into the surroundings and are very often the first to notice pollution or other problems with the water ways and bank sides.