‘Blue’ the pelican gets life-saving surgery after pouch is slashed from ‘base to the tip’

Daniella Segura

A brown pelican is in recovery after undergoing surgery to repair her pouch, “which was severed from the base to the tip on both sides,” a California nonprofit said.

A woman first spotted the bird, nicknamed “Blue” after “the color of her temporary ID band,” near a San Pedro sport fishing boat Sunday, March 10, International Bird Rescue said in a March 11 news release.

“It looked like something was wrong,” Loryn Murakami, the woman who spotted the bird, told The Daily Breeze. “I gave it a fish and it just went right through (the pouch). I thought, ‘Oh, that is so messed up.’”

She first contacted the Marine Mammal Care Center, the nonprofit said.

After being directed to contact the International Bird Rescue, Murakami told The Daily Breeze she captured the bird and placed her in an ice chest for the drive over to the San Pedro center.

“Luckily, it wasn’t a long drive,” she told the newspaper.

Rebecca Duerr repairs Blue the pelican’s pouch.
Rebecca Duerr repairs Blue the pelican’s pouch.

The bird’s scabbed cuts, which were about four to seven days old, ran parallel from her jaw “all the way back to the neck,” the nonprofit said. The cut was so deep it went through the “feathered skin of the neck itself on both sides.”

The nonprofit said the wounds were “linear cuts reminiscent of a knife, machete, or other sharp object,” suggesting the slash was human caused.

A brown pelican is in recovery after undergoing surgery to repair her pouch, “which was severed from the base to the tip on both sides,” a California nonprofit says.
A brown pelican is in recovery after undergoing surgery to repair her pouch, “which was severed from the base to the tip on both sides,” a California nonprofit says.

“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,” Rebecca Duerr, the nonprofit’s director of research and veterinary science, said in the release.

Blue received more than 400 stitches to repair her pouch, which is integral to her eating, as well as hydration, according to the nonprofit.

“More than 400 stitches were required to repair the pelican’s pouch which was severed from the base to the tip on both sides,” the nonprofit said.
“More than 400 stitches were required to repair the pelican’s pouch which was severed from the base to the tip on both sides,” the nonprofit said.

“The back of the Blue’s oral cavity required careful reconstruction but came together well,” Duerr said. “She will need another short surgery to finish the repair after she’s had a chance to become stronger.”

Blue is expected to make a full recovery in a month, according to the nonprofit.

After surgery, the nonprofit said Blue is now “resting comfortably.”

“I wish we weren’t handling another terrible case like this, but the pelican is in the best possible spot with an experienced veterinary team who will make all the difference in her recovery,” JD Bergeron, the nonprofit’s CEO, said in the release.

The nonprofit said the case is reminiscent of Pink the Pelican’s case, wherein she needed more than 600 stitches to repair her pouch.

The nonprofit said it has also seen seven similar slashing cases from 2019 to 2021.

Brown Pelicans are protected under California and federal law, according to the nonprofit.

San Pedro is about a 20-mile drive south from downtown Los Angeles.

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