Dead pelicans found all over the place, story update direct from a DWLF officer

i didnt see it mentioned here but im sure many have seen or heard about it. any way, i just wanted to share some info about whats going on and why.

Dead pelican story update direct from a DWLF officer.

thursday i went fishing and found a dozen or so dead pelicans at the peninsula by the public launch at golden meadow, so i reported it in case someone was shooting pelicans or something.

i went back fishing again on friday and WLF was at the launch doing catch surveys (were they dig out the fish eardrums or something for testing growth patterns), and the guy told me they had an investigator came out that morning to check the dead pelicans after they got a report yesterday about them (i reported it to DWLF but i may not have been the only one to do so). he said there was no sign of foul play and they appeared to have starved to death.

they took a few of birds for testing, but he said there are hundreds, maybe a thousand or two, of pelicans dying all over the marsh. he told me pelicans store food as fat and dont use what they eat that day directly to get instant energy to live on, so that is why, even with food right there for them that they can eat today, they are still starving to death.

he said the back to back freezes did it. he said first freeze cut off there food, so they lived off body fat, but there was not enough time to add body fat again before the second freeze and they lost food again and that was the death blow because they had no body fat to survive without food. any way that was his explanation.

while we were talking he pointed out two pelican swimming in circles by the pipes and said they werent feeding and seemed disorientated so he expected those two to die in the next day or two as well.

i asked about food stocks and he said they have been testing regularly after the freeze and there is a great abundance of healthy bait fish and shrimp so those were not affected by the freeze and the pelican issue is not anything to worry about game fish being affected in any way. in fact he said it looked like foods stocks tested showed a much larger supply then they have seen for many years since the oil spill.

any way, i just wanted to put out some detailed truth behind why they are all dying, since there were false stories making it seem like it was all due to the trucks running them over.

well they are getting run over in large numbers but its because the birds are starving and "out of it", dazed and confused from starvation, so they are just meandering on the roads going to grand isle and fourchon and dont recognize to get the hell out of the way of ongoing traffic.