(Above) This Eastern Brown pelican's leg is permanently injured from monofilament fishing line. Nine out of ten birds brought to the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary in Indian Shores, Florida, suffer from injuries inflicted by humans.

(Left) Charlann Mason, a full-time rescue volunteer, makes daily rounds of the local fishing piers looking for injured birds. She attracts pelicans by holding up fish, coaxing them to open their wings so she can visually search for wounds. Many injuries to pelicans involve fish hooks and monofilament fishing line, and the result is too often irreparable damage.

When Mason suspects a bird has an injury, she captures the bird and inspects it on the spot. If it needs medical attention or care, Mason loads the bird into her "Bird Ambulance," equipped with various cages, tools and food, for transport back to the Seabird Sanctuary emergency room.
Wildlife veterinarians operate on an injured cormorant in the emergency room of the Seabird Sanctuary's hospital facility.
Jim Protin feeds a young Eastern Brown pelican medicine and essential nutrients. This bird, along with dozens of others, has received medical attention and is in the first stages of recuperation in the hospital recovery room, where Protin carefully monitors each bird's condition.
The Seabird Sanctuary goes through 250-300 pounds of fish every day to feed more than 600 resident seabirds, land birds and birds of prey.
Volunteers haul buckets of extra fish from the Sanctuary out to the beach every day to feed the healthy pelican population living along the shore. During these feedings they observe the pelicans closely, always on the alert for any injuries.
At the end of a busy day at the Sanctuary, Louise Sanderson, a part-time volunteer, heads out to the beach to walk along the ocean with a resident red-tailed hawk. This gives the hawk, who was raised as a pet and would not survive in the wild, a chance to stretch out her wings in the wind.