A family came to the aid of a pelican after noticing it struggling with a fish stuck in its mouth. The distressed bird was in the water at a dock in Englewood, Florida, with the fish wedged on its beak. In a video shared on YouTube, a young girl can be heard exclaiming, “He’s choking. Save him!”
One of the two men in a boat reached over to the bird to attempt to remove the fish, but it proved to be more difficult than they initially anticipated for a disturbing reason. The rescuers realized, “The fish had a double-sided hook in its mouth that was lodged into the pelican.”
With careful coordination, the two men worked together to gently extract the fish from the pelican’s mouth. It became clear why the bird was unable to swallow the fish.
Fortunately, the pelican is doing well, and hopefully, it will not encounter such an unfortunate catch again.