Rescuers are struggling to save scores of pelicans found sick and starving along coastal Southern California -- even though experts say there's plenty of fish for them in local waters.
The big-beaked seabirds are anemic, dehydrated and weigh only half of what they should, Debbie McGuire, executive director of the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach, told the Associated Press.
"They are starving to death and if we don't get them into care, they will die," McGuire said. "It really is a crisis."
The center recently rescued some two dozen ailing brown pelicans after lifeguards spotted them on a pier in Newport Beach, AP said.
McGuire said she spoke to scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to try to find out what's going on, and was told there's "plenty of bait out there" for the birds, which eat anchovies, sardines and mackerel, according to the Los Angeles Times.
"We don't know the cause," she said. "They are just all starving."
The Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center is currently so overwhelmed by the number of pelicans in its care that it's had to erect to tents to house and treat them all.
The International Bird Rescue Group said on its website Friday that more than 235 pelicans had been brought to its two wildlife centers near Los Angeles and San Francisco since April 20.
Testing on the birds hasn't revealed evidence of any diseases, such as bird flu, that could explain the situation, the organization said.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has also been testing the birds and conducting postmortem exams, with preliminary results showing that they died of starvation-related problems, according to Friday release.
Similar "stranding events" have occurred periodically among various California seabird species, with nearly 800 pelicans brought to wildlife rehabilitation centers in the spring of 2022, the department said.
About half where successfully treated and returned to the wild.
