Edible beer packaging may have saved Ed the Duck from 'plastic prison'

A brewery in Florida may have solved the age-old problem of animals being snared and strangled by plastic six-pack beer rings.

If you remember Calgary's Ed the Duck, that's ingenuity the tangled up mallard could have used nearly 30 years ago.

Saltwater Brewery has invented what it says is the world's first edible beer packaging made from beer-making by-products such as wheat and barley.

So, if a turtle gets caught in one of these tasty rings it could theoretically chew its way out.

The green brewers have made a video, which has been making the rounds on social media.

Remembering Ed the Duck

The mallard, who once resided in Calgary's Prince's Island Park, made international headlines in 1990 because he was just so darn hard to catch and free from "his plastic prison."

That's how former CBC reporter, Collene Ferguson, described the predicament the little duck was in. He'd managed to get a plastic six-pack ring wound so tightly around his beak that he was having trouble feeding.

"People were just really interested and it just picked up a lot of steam and everybodywanted to save him," Ferguson told theCalgaryEyeopeneron Monday.

"CNN actually picked it up and had a daily "Ed Watch"and so they were using some of our news footage."

Fish and wildlife officers made severalattempts to capture Ed, but failed.

So they brought in the big guns literally.A gun-like device that would shoot a weighted net over the duck.

Man jumpsoff bridge to save Ed, breaks leg

The inventor of this niftynetlauncher, JeffMarley, did manage to trap Ed as he was swimming under a pedestrian bridge on the Bow River.

Concerned about Ed being dragged underwater by the net, Marleyjumped off thebridge and carried Ed out of the water, limping.

"He broke a leg or ankle because it was very shallow water, unfortunately," Ferguson said.

Marleyrecruited her tocut the six-pack ring off Ed'sneck, then they released the duck back into the river.

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With files from theCalgary Eyeopener