I grew up in central Flordia in the 80s and 90s. I loved saltwater fishing. Because of this I started to have lots of interactions with pelicans.

After awhile I became kind of close with them, we somehow seemed to communicate, I would spend hours with them, sometimes I would take out the boat and float around the shallows for these huge schools of pompano that would swim around the deep shipping channel then they would come up in the shallows for a few seconds and hit the bait fish really hard, it made them an easy catch and an unbelievably hard fight on ultralight gear.

I would go alone, sometimes with friends, but the one living being that always showed up was the pelican, and in this particular case it was a fishing spot I found near the Skyway bridge in St. Petersburg.

This is where the pelican became my favorite bird, we had some good times together, one bird in that area though new me and followed me around, never bothering me, never once trying to catch my bait that obviously has a hook in it, it seemed to know what was up, I'll never forget those pelicans and especially my buddy who always loved hanging out and getting fat from my catch.

So I carry the name because I love pelicans and the more people see the name maybe just maybe they might think twice before harming one of these magnificent birds or littering which is heavily contributing to their extinction.