| Pelican Pursuit |
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A phone call was received one day about a distressed pelican. While it was a sure thing that if he was on the water it would prove difficult to catch him, I went down to the foreshore anyway. Sure enough there he was paddling around under the old traffic bridge, it has a boardwalk underneath and there were people fishing and feeding him. I went up on to the boardwalk to have a closer look at his dilemma. Sure enough he had lure with quite a large fishing hook and an amount of fishing line attached which was wrapped around one of his wings and he was unable to fly. No amount of coaxing to get him close worked. Off I went to the Ranger's office to see if there was some way I could get assistance. Tried both the Fisheries Department and the Department of Environment and Conservation all to no avail as they were short staffed at the time and unable to put a boat in the water. Then I tried the State Emergency Service and to my delight they were willing to put a boat in the water in around 20 minutes. Back I went to the bridge to wait for their arrival. As I approached the boardwalk a young man had seen the plight of the pelican and decided to take things into his own hands . Nothing I could say would change his mind and off came the t-shirt and with pockets emptied, he picked out the most decent of his bait fish from his bucket and our would be rescuer jumped in, by this time the pelican had paddled further away out into the estuary and his determined attempts to coax him back failed miserably as I knew they would. Then along came my SES heroes! Three burly young men and a young woman in a tinny (dinghy) all with the same determination as our first hero but! Our peli had other ideas and had paddled off at high speed with the tinny in hot pursuit – our rescuers were not to be deterred completely forgetting that a tinny didn't have the same ability for high speed turns and circles as a peli does. By this time quite a crowd had gathered under the boardwalk and traffic had slowed almost to a standstill on the bridge above. Me – all I could do was wait patiently on the foreshore to see what was going to eventuate. After a quick consultation between the occupants of the tinny it appeared that a plan had been formed. Once again the tinny edged closer then one of the young men stood up and I thought 'oh no' I had guessed what the plan was and I held my breath. Closer and closer they edged toward the peli who was watching with great interest. Sucking in a big breath the young man launched himself into space, he definitely was not a small person and you can well imagine the reaction of our peli who waited until our hero was in mid air and then paddled away at top speed! This brave young man did the most beautiful belly flop I have ever seen! - nearly emptied the estuary! Needless to say he missed by a country mile. His audience on the boardwalk clapped and cheered and some wag yelled out 'I'll give ya ten points for that one!' This caused even more hilarity and I have to admit that trying not to laugh wasn't easy. After picking up our dive champion off they went again. Fortunately for them the peli had become somewhat tired and after a bit more manoeuvring, this time in a more sedate manner, they were able to catch him and bring him to shore. I was so relieved . Off we went to the vet who removed the fishing tackle and after a couple of days of R and R he was released. I was exceptionally grateful for the assistance of the State Emergency Service, without their efforts the pelican would not have survived. |
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