Thanks to a generous grant from SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund, brown pelicans in distress will get more help in California. The Fund recently issued a grant to IBRRC totaling $5,000 in emergency funding to help the organization purchase food and medical supplies.
Since June 2008, hundreds of injured brown pelicans with hook, tackle and line injuries have come into the International Bird Rescue Rehabilitation Center’s (IBRRC) two California facilities.
The birds, migrating north from Mexico through Southern California, are becoming entangled in fishing gear as they feed on sardines and anchovies near the same piers and wharfs as local anglers in Santa Cruz, CA. When anglers reel in a catch, the birds try to eat the fish off the long lines. The lines are either cut or broken, leaving the birds injured and in need of care.
A non-profit foundation, the SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund supports wildlife research, habitat protection, animal rescue and education in the U.S. and around the world. In addition to annual grants that have exceeded $5 million over the past five years, the Fund also issues animal crisis grants to provide rapid, much-needed funding to aid animals and habitats in peril due to either natural or human-caused events.
