C'est la vie, mais le Pelican est mort

I'll begin with the bad, albeit expected, news; the pelican died.  Considering how badly broken it's wing was, I think we did everything we could for it by resetting the wing, feeding it, and having a vacationing German vet examine it.  In retrospect, I think the lattermost move was a mistake, either that or we mistranslated and "wrap the pelican in towels and keep it closed in a small box in the back shed for 24 hours" wasn't what the vet actually had in mind.  Oh well, in any event this seems to add credibility to my earlier post about the dangers of being a pelican.

In other news, a French film crew came to the lab today to film a promotional video that the Bahamian tourism department hopes to use to attract more of those beret wearing wine & cheese lovers from across the pond.  While two teams of volunteers went out tracking for the day, Marc and I were assigned to helping out with the filming out back.  The first thing I noticed when I went out back was that their camera equipment was probably worth more than the GDP of most African nations (Jim estimated their topside camera was worth close to $80,000 and the underwater camera's resolution was over 8x HD quality).  I haven't really taken any time to explain the incredible micromanager and character that is 73 year-old "Doc" Gruber, but lets just say that, along with being an esteemed shark biologist, he considers himself a professional director, producer, and cameraman, and watching three confused french filmmakers trying to cope with him was pretty entertaining.
The crew filmed several scenes, all staged, of driving the boats, catching, tagging, and releasing juvenile lemon sharks.  Then we set a large net around a section of mangroves and allowed two lemon sharks to swim around so they could get some "natural" action shots.  The crew were nice guys and had stories of filming underwater spectacles that I would gladly sacrifice a small child to witness.

Oh yea, wednesday night is once again karaoke night at the bar and the crew is coming to film us and they've been told i'll sing........shit.  Whiskey.