Wildlife rescuers are caring for injured pelicans that have been showing up at Brevard beaches. Leo Cross, who owns Florida Wildlife Trappers and Rescue, said his company has picked up a couple dozen pelicans over the past two weeks.
“Finding a lot of snapped wings like completely broken in half. The odd thing is we’re trying to see if they’re sick and they’re doing something like crashing into the ground, water. Or boats, you know there are a lot of shrimp boats out there off the shore right now,” said Cross.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission responded to a call that fishermen were hurting pelicans near their boats. Officer Lenny Salberg said FWC did surveillance and didn’t find any wrongdoing.
Salberg says they’re seeing a natural die-off of pelicans from Jacksonville down to Brevard County.
“It’s their natural instinct for them to dive from 30 feet down into the water. It could be self-injured. We don’t know how their wings are getting snapped,” said Salberg.