Two rehabilitated adult brown pelicans were released to their natural habitat in San Pedro on Thursday April 25, 2024. Blue, nicknamed for her temporary leg band, was brought to the Bird Rescue’s Los Angeles Wildlife Center in San Pedro in early March suffering a slashed pouch that required multiple surgeries and over 500 stitches. The female adult pelican spent 45 days in care, and staff noticed she made a connection with a male pelican that was healing from an apparent sea lion bite. Upon their release the two pelicans spent some time on the rocks, spreading their wings before they took flight in unison.
(Photo by Brittany M. Solo, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
“Blue,” right, nicknamed for the color of her temporary band, and her new companion are both healed and were released to their natural habitat in San Pedro on Thursday April 25, 2024. Blue was brought to the Bird Rescue’s Los Angeles Wildlife Center in early March suffering a slashed pouch that required multiple surgeries and over 500 stitches. The female adult pelican spent 45 days in care, and staff noticed she made a connection with a male pelican who was healing from an apparent sea lion bite. Upon their release the two pelicans spent time on the rocks, spreading their wings before they took flight in unison.
(Photo by Brittany M. Solo, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
“Blue,” left, nicknamed for the color of her temporary band, and her new companion are both healed and were released to their natural habitat in San Pedro on Thursday April 25, 2024. Blue was brought to the Bird Rescue’s Los Angeles Wildlife Center in early March suffering a slashed pouch that required multiple surgeries and over 500 stitches. The female adult pelican spent 45 days in care, and staff noticed she made a connection with a male pelican who was healing from an apparent sea lion bite. Upon their release the two pelicans spent time on the rocks, spreading their wings before they took flight in unison.
(Photo by Brittany M. Solo, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
Two rehabilitated adult brown pelicans were released to their natural habitat in San Pedro on Thursday April 25, 2024. Blue, nicknamed for her temporary leg band, was brought to the Bird Rescue’s Los Angeles Wildlife Center in early March suffering slashed pouch that required multiple surgeries and over 500 stitches. The female adult pelican spent 45 days in care, and staff noticed she made a connection with a male pelican who was healing from an apparent sea lion bite. Upon their release the two pelicans spent time on the rocks, spreading their wings before they took flight in unison.
(Photo by Brittany M. Solo, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
Two rehabilitated adult brown pelicans were released to their natural habitat in San Pedro on Thursday April 25, 2024. Blue, nicknamed for her temporary leg band, was brought to the Bird Rescue’s Los Angeles Wildlife Center in early March suffering from a slashed pouch that required multiple surgeries and over 500 stitches. The female adult pelican spent 45 days in care, and staff noticed she made a connection with a male pelican who was healing from an apparent sea lion bite. Upon their release the two pelicans spent time on the rocks, spreading their wings before they took flight in unison.
(Photo by Brittany M. Solo, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
“Blue,” left, nicknamed for the color of her temporary band, and her new companion are both healed and were released to their natural habitat in San Pedro on Thursday April 25, 2024. Blue was brought to the Bird Rescue’s Los Angeles Wildlife Center in early March suffering a slashed pouch that required multiple surgeries and over 500 stitches. The female adult pelican spent 45 days in care, and staff noticed she made a connection with a male pelican who was healing from an apparent sea lion bite. Upon their release the two pelicans spent time together on the rocks, spreading their wings before they took flight in unison.
(Photo by Brittany M. Solo, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
“Blue,” left, nicknamed for the color of her temporary band, and her new companion are both healed and were released to their natural habitat in San Pedro on Thursday April 25, 2024. Blue was brought to the Bird Rescue’s Los Angeles Wildlife Center in early March suffering a slashed pouch that required multiple surgeries and over 500 stitches. The female adult pelican spent 45 days in care, and staff noticed she made a connection with a male pelican who was healing from an apparent sea lion bite. Upon their release the two pelicans spent some time on the rocks, spreading their wings before they took flight in unison.
(Photo by Brittany M. Solo, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
Blue was one of two rehabilitated adult brown pelicans released to their natural habitat in San Pedro on Thursday April 25, 2024. Blue, nicknamed for her temporary leg band, was brought to the Bird Rescue’s Los Angeles Wildlife Center in early March suffering from a slashed pouch that required multiple surgeries and over 500 stitches. The female adult pelican spent 45 days in care, and staff noticed she made a connection with a male pelican who was healing from an apparent sea lion bite. Upon their release the two pelicans lingered on the rocks, spreading their wings before they took flight in unison.
(Photo by Brittany M. Solo, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
After more than six weeks, multiple surgeries and more than 500 stitches, a pelican called “Blue” made her way home from the shores of an isolated San Pedro beach on Thursday, April 25 — concluding a more than monthlong recovery from a slashed pouch.
The 3-year-old California brown pelican was found on March 10, perched on the railing of one of the sport fishing boats docked at 22nd Street Landing in San Pedro.
Loryn Murakami, a crew member working on the Truline vessel docked one space over, spotted the seabird and tossed a fish for it to eat. The bird tried to down the fish — but it fell out of the pelican’s pouch. A closer look revealed the pouch was mostly detached.
The pelican, nicknamed “Blue” for the color of her temporary band, required multiple surgeries – involving more than 500 stitches – to repair the bird’s slashed pouch. The female adult pelican spent 45 days under care at the San Pedro center, gaining weight by eating approximately 300 pounds of fish during her stay.
The total cost of her care, the center said, came to more than $10,000 in staff time, medicines, surgical supplies and food.
Blue was released at White Point-Royal Palms Beach on Thursday morning, with a new friend: a pelican she appeared to bond with that was healing from what appeared to be a sea lion bite.
After spreading their wings on the nearby rocks, the pair flew off together.
Blue’s wound is believed to have been caused intentionally by a human and the incident was under investigation by the California Fish and Wildlife’s Law Enforcement Division.
That investigation still has not turned up any new leads, Capt. Patrick Foy, with the Law Enforcement Division, said in a Thursday phone interview. The agency, he added, “appreciates the rescue center and all the help that they provide” to rescue and rehabilitate the birds.
“It hasn’t gone unnoticed.”
Blue was treated by staffers, led by veterinarian Rebecca Duerr, the International Bird Rescue’s director of research and veterinary science.
“We see many pelicans with pouch trauma due to fishing gear and eating dangerous sharp items like fish skeletons, but the wounds do not look like this,” Duerr said in a previous written comment. “The cuts are reminiscent of a knife, machete or other sharp object.”
The wounds on Blue were “straight cuts parallel to the jaw,” she said.
“The bird is alive today because of a rescuer’s quick action, and the expert care it received at our wildlife center,” said JD Bergeron, CEO of Bird Rescue, in a written comment.
Blue is alive because her rescuer acted quickly and the wildlife center gave her expert care, Bird Rescue CEO JD Bergeron said in a written comment.
“Thanks also go to our wonderful supporters who donated to help fund Blue’s recovery,” Bergeron added. “Bird Rescue can’t do this life-saving work without donations from people who appreciate these majestic seabirds.”
California brown pelicans were classified as federally endangered in 1970 (delisted in 2009) and as endangered by the state in 1971. Continued threats to the species mostly center around breeding grounds that are impacted by pollution, such as oil and sewage spills.
Climate change and its impact on fish populations are also a big concern, said Russ Curtis, spokesperson for the International Bird Rescue Center.
Incidents similar to what happened to Blue have been reported along the California coastline from Ventura to Dana Point over the past five years, Foy said last month.
No arrests have been made in those earlier cases, he added, but the public can report information anonymously at the Cal Tip Line: 888-334-2258.
