Pelican nicknamed “Blue” in enclosure on March 12, 2024, one day after the first surgery at International Bird Rescue in San Pedro. (Photo By Jennifer Martinez)
California brown pelican “Blue” on March 20, 2024, at International Bird Rescue in San Pedro. Two surgeries were required to repair the pelican’s slashed pouch. (Photo By Ariana Gastelum – International Bird Rescue)
Pelican under anesthesia during surgery at the International Bird Rescue Center in San Pedro. (Photo by Ariana Gastelum – International Bird Rescue Center)
California brown pelican “Blue” following surgery to repair severed pouch at the International Bird Rescue Center in San Pedro. (Photo by Ariana Gastelum – International Bird Rescue Center)
International Bird Rescue Veterinarian Rebecca Duerr surgically repairing the severed pelican pouch. (Photo by Ariana Gastelum – International Bird Rescue Center)
International Bird Rescue Veterinarian Rebecca Duerr repairing the pouch on “Blue,” a California brown pelican brought into the San Pedro center over the weekend. (Photo by Arianna Gastelum – International Bird Rescue)
L-R Kylie Clatterbuck, Wildlife Center Manager, and Jennifer Martines, Wildlife Rehabilitation Technician, examine an adult female Brown Pelican whose pouch was slashed from the jaw line all the way to the tip in a linear fashion. The cut leads staff to believe it was done by a human using a knife, machete or other sharp object. After being discovered by a fishing boat captain, the pelican, now nicknamed Blue, required surgery and has more than 400 stitches at the International Bird Rescue in San Pedro on Tuesday, March 12 2024. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
Kylie Clatterbuck, Wildlife Center Manager, examines an adult female Brown Pelican whose pouch was slashed from the jaw line all the way to the tip in a linear fashion. The cut leads staff to believe it was done by a human using a knife, machete or other sharp object. After being discovered by a fishing boat captain, the pelican, now nicknamed Blue, required surgery and has more than 400 stitches at the International Bird Rescue in San Pedro on Tuesday, March 12 2024. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
L-R Kylie Clatterbuck, Wildlife Center Manager, and Jennifer Martines, Wildlife Rehabilitation Technician, examine an adult female Brown Pelican whose pouch was slashed from the jaw line all the way to the tip in a linear fashion. The cut leads staff to believe it was done by a human using a knife, machete or other sharp object. After being discovered by a fishing boat captain, the pelican, now nicknamed Blue, required surgery and has more than 400 stitches at the International Bird Rescue in San Pedro on Tuesday, March 12 2024. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
Kylie Clatterbuck, Wildlife Center Manager, examines an adult female Brown Pelican whose pouch was slashed from the jaw line all the way to the tip in a linear fashion. The cut leads staff to believe it was done by a human using a knife, machete or other sharp object. After being discovered by a fishing boat captain, the pelican, now nicknamed Blue, required surgery and has more than 400 stitches at the International Bird Rescue in San Pedro on Tuesday, March 12 2024. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
L-R Kylie Clatterbuck, Wildlife Center Manager, and Jennifer Martines, Wildlife Rehabilitation Technician, examine an adult female Brown Pelican whose pouch was slashed from the jaw line all the way to the tip in a linear fashion. The cut leads staff to believe it was done by a human using a knife, machete or other sharp object. After being discovered by a fishing boat captain, the pelican, now nicknamed Blue, required surgery and has more than 400 stitches at the International Bird Rescue in San Pedro on Tuesday, March 12 2024. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
L-R Kylie Clatterbuck, Wildlife Center Manager, and Jennifer Martines, Wildlife Rehabilitation Technician, examine an adult female Brown Pelican whose pouch was slashed from the jaw line all the way to the tip in a linear fashion. The cut leads staff to believe it was done by a human using a knife, machete or other sharp object. After being discovered by a fishing boat captain, the pelican, now nicknamed Blue, required surgery and has more than 400 stitches at the International Bird Rescue in San Pedro on Tuesday, March 12 2024. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
International Bird Rescue Veterinarian Rebecca Duerr examines “Blue” prior to surgery, The California brown pelican required more than 400 stitches in what will be the first of two extensive surgeries to repair a cut pouch. (Photo by Ariana Gastelum – International Bird Rescue)
The future is looking up for the 3-year-old California brown pelican that was found on March 10 with a mostly-detached pouch.
The pelican had a second surgery this week at the International Bird Rescue Center in San Pedro. Altogether, more than 500 stitches were needed to repair the slashed pouch that rescuers believe was an act of human cruelty.
The pelican, officials at the center said on Thursday, March 21, “is on the mend.”
The bird was brought in by a crew member on the Truline, one of the sport fishing boats at 22nd Street Landing. Loryn Murakami was working on that boat spotted the pelican on a rail on a neighboring vessle. She thought something looked wrong as the bird sat on the rail of a neighboring vessel. When she tossed a fish over and the pelican grabbed it, the fish fell through the pelican’s pouch.
The injuries were severe but Veterinarian Rebecca Duerr of the center’s Research and Veterinary Science quickly performed surgery, one of two the bird would need.
As of Thursday, March 21, the pelican — nicknamed “Blue” by the rescue center — was eating “with bravado, having gained 800 grams (1.75 pounds) since coming into care at the Los Angeles wildlife care center,” according to a written release.
“All signs point to a resilient majestic pelican that will soon return to the wild,” the release said. “In a video of Blue, still groggy from sedation after her second surgery this week, she can be seen hilariously attempting to eat by throwing fish over her head.”
Capt. Patrick Foy, of the California Fish and Wildlife’s Law Enforcement Division, said on March 11 that the agency would be investigating the incident.
Similar injuries, Foy said, have been reported along the California coastline from Ventura to Dana Point over the past five years but no arrests have been made in those cases. Foy couldn’t be reached for additional comments Thursday, May 21, but a bird center contact, noting they had not received an update, noted that the state agency typically doesn’t release information until an investigation is concluded.
“We want to thank the bird lovers of Southern California and beyond for their support of our efforts to save Blue,” said JD Bergeron, CEO of Bird Rescue.
Bird Center Veterinarian Rebecca Duerr said the center typically sees a number of pouch injuries, but some have signs that they have been caused by humans.
“We see many pelicans with pouch trauma due to fishing gear and eating dangerous sharp items like fish skeletons, but the wounds (on Blue) do not look like this,” she said in a written comment. “The cuts are reminiscent of a knife, machete or other sharp object.”
Blue’s injuries were distinctive, she said.
Those injuries “were straight cuts parallel to the jaw, running all the way back to the neck, and cutting into the feathered skin of the neck itself on both sides,” Duerr said. “The back of Blue’s mouth required careful reconstruction but came together well.”
Blue will continue to recover at the hospital and, when sufficiently recovered, will be released back out to the wild.
To donate to the effort at the nonprofit International Bird Rescue, go to birdrescue.org/helpblue/.
If anyone witnessed the attack, they can report information anonymously to the Cal Tip Line at (888) 334-2258.
