500 Pelicans Found Dead In Gulf of Nicoya

Environment and Energy Minister Roberto Dobles this week expressed concern about the fact that approximately 500 brown pelicans were found dead on an islet in the Pacific-coastGulf of Nicoya by Costa Rican Coast Guard officials Friday, according to the wire service ACAN-EFE.

Scientists are “working to identify the cause of these deaths, deaths that were abrupt and as of now have no scientific explanation,” Dobles said, declining to speculate on what killed the birds.

Scientists at Universidad Nacional (UNA) VeterinarySchool in Heredia, north of San José, are studying the bodies of some of the pelicans, which can weigh up to five kilograms and feed off of fish and other matter along Costa Rica’s Pacific coast, reported the daily La Nación.