Sandra Torres Guzman (The first hour) brings to attention the lawyer Roberto Rafols, otherwise known as Capitán Pelícano, who has transformed his relationship with these seabirds into a tourism and educational experience for the protection of the species. Here are excerpts:
Anyone arriving at Aguadilla’s Rompeolas Beach to get a scratch [yola: local, traditional wooden boat] the tour with Roberto Rafols, known as Capitán Pelícano, cannot imagine the magnitude of the experience they will witness, accompanied by a professional lawyer turned nature translator.
This is how “The Adventures of Capitan Pelícano” begins. The “captain” welcomes his visitors with the story of the Aguadillan-made boat, or yola, and immediately, when he blows the conch shell, the first brown pelican answers his call and stands on the humble boat that identifies the fishermen of area.
“Ball, ball, ball, ball!” In this way, the picturesque 45-year-old captain communicates with the impressive gray-brown seabird, characterized by a long beak and a large neck pouch, which he has baptized with different names, among them, Felipe, Hope, Princess. and Peace.
“Good morning, Felipe, how are you?” says Rafols as he greets his feathered friend, while explaining that, “30 pelicans can arrive here. There are different tribes, further you see Hope. Thus come several families of pelicans, each with its own name and personality.”
At the helm is Rafael Rivera Blondet, alias Captain Wood, who steers the ship through Aguada Bay until it reaches the first stop. It is an interesting rock formation from which stands out the figure of a jaguar carved in stone, surrounded by colossal trees, mainly flaming ones. [or flame tree].
“Here is the habitat of the pelican that belongs to the family of “brown pelicans” [pelícano pardo]. They live in Central America, the Caribbean, and even reach the United States. They lay between one and three eggs, but recently only one egg is laid and the reason is that the microplastics in the oceans are affecting the sardines”, he emphasizes.
“Ball, ball, ball, ball!” This is what Capitán Pelícano continues to call the members of this species, which is in danger of extinction in Puerto Rico. However, the relationship with this man seems to grow even stronger over time.
“On that path of life, I grew up with a man called Harry ‘The Pelican Whisperer’ who wanted to share with pelicans and started that relationship. We admired him, he was our teacher, but he died and left it legacy. At one point, I rescued a three-month-old pelican that got tangled in fishing line and that won our hearts; it never left my side,” said Rafols, who grew up in the Crash Boat community.
However, his first pelican had arrived with a large wound in his bag and, to save it, he took it to the Manatee Conservation Center in Bayamon. But the bird left. “I started with all my heart to make a public appeal and they started sharing the video and within six months, Felipe was back; found his way back home. This is how this incredible bond with our pelicans was born. But everything has been over time, day by day, with love”, he emphasized as he explained the pelican’s reaction when they hear his voice.
“They are hungry, but now they all want to come to fish. The young fishermen want to catch all the sardines and do not share them with the pelicans and are therefore starving. That’s why I don’t give them the sardines, but rather give them back,” he lamented as he shared fish with the pelicans, who, when they arrived, ate and then stayed to play and watch their captain. [. . .]
“The brown pelican is in danger of extinction on our island because Hurricane María also affected the species and reduced it to 50%, and developments around its habitat have caused the species to decline. I am like a custodian of the species and its habitat,” he insisted.
Why did he leave his legal profession to become a lawyer for these birds?
“I used to be a lawyer. I graduated 20 years ago and 13 years ago decided it was not my path in life. I thought about following my passion to see where life would take me and started learning to surf. I was the first Puerto Rican to enter the classroom to learn surfing as a sport and from there, life put me on the path of autistic children and I began to provide sea therapy,” he recounts.
“When my father died, the only thing he left me as an inheritance was an aguadillan. no. I started using it slowly and took it out to sea. Little by little I was doing this activity and people who visited me fell in love with the idea and asked me why I didn’t start taking people out for a ride and talking about the history of my city,” he added. However, “I never thought pelicans would be so prominent in my life.”
“We are currently proposing the creation of the Brown Pelican National Reserve [Reserva Nacional del Pelícano Pardo] in our bay and thus protect their habitat, where they nest. We also want the Crash Boat Marine Reserve to be declared to preserve the water where they spend most of their time because we are getting a series of discharges full of pollutants into our bay,” he argued.
Capitán Pelícano offers several adventures of approximately three hours each, which will also take you to caves, beaches and all the natural beauty of Aguadilla.
For more details, see Crash Boat Experiences on Facebook or Instagram, or El Capitán Pelícano on Facebook.
For the full article (in Spanish), see https://www.primerahora.com/noticias/puerto-rico/notas/impressionantes-las-aventuras-del-capitan-pelicano/
