Scores of starving and sick pelicans are found along the California coast

NEWPORT BEACH — Scores of sick and starving pelicans have been found in coastal California communities in recent weeks and many others have died. Lifeguards spotted a cluster of two dozen sick pelicans earlier this week on a pier in coastal Newport Beach and called in wildlife experts to assist. Volunteer Jason Foo holds a rescued pelican by its beak while treating the bird at the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach, Calif.

, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) A sick pelican sits on the beach in Newport Beach, Calif.



, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. It is not immediately clear what is sickening the birds. Some wildlife experts noted the pelicans are malnourished, though marine life abounds off the Pacific Coast.

(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) Brown pelicans that were starving recuperate at the Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach, Calif., on Friday, May 3, 2024, after a mass stranding of species over the past few weeks.

(Leonard Ortiz/The Orange County Register via AP) Lindsey Campbell, left, a senior wildlife tech, is assisted by volunteer Lan Wiborg in feeding a malnourished brown pelican at Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach, Calif., on Friday, May 3, 2024. (Leonard Ortiz/The Orange County Register via AP) Lindsey Campbell a senior wildlife tech at Wildlife Care Center, takes a blood sample from a brown pelican in Huntington Beach, Calif.

, on Friday, May 3, 2024, after the center was inundated with with starving brown pelicans after a mass stranding ov.