By Dina Cappiello
Associated Press
Associated Press
After plummeting to the brink of extinction, the brown pelican has resurfaced, much like it does after its death-defying dives for fish.
Interior Department officials on Wednesday announced that they were taking the prehistoric-looking bird off the endangered species list, after a nearly four-decade struggle to keep the brown pelican population afloat.
The bird, now prevalent along the California coast and often seen gliding elegantly above the San Francisco Bay, was declared an endangered species in 1970, after its population — much like those of the bald eagle and peregrine falcon — was decimated by the use of the pesticide DDT. The chemical, consumed when the pelican ate tainted fish, caused it to lay eggs with shells so thin they broke during incubation.
The pelican's recovery is largely due to a 1972 ban on DDT, coupled with efforts by states and conservation groups to protect its nesting sites and monitor its population, Interior Department officials said.
"Today we can say the brown pelican is back," said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in a conference call with reporters in Washington. "Once again, we see healthy flocks of these graceful birds flying over our shores. The brown pelican is endangered no longer."
California's Audubon Society applauded the news but said the big birds still need to be monitored. About 172,000 brown pelicans are found along the California and Mexico coasts, many breeding in the Channel Islands and stopping in the Bay Area in search of food.
During the late 1960s and early '70s, the birds had declined to fewer than 1,000 pairs, according to Lois Grunwald, spokeswoman for Ventura County office of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Office. By 2006, there were 11,695 breeding pairs in Southern California.
"They're very common in the San Francisco Bay Area,'' she said. "When you drive along Highway 1, you see them along the water feeding. They're so distinctive."
When UC Davis professor Dan Anderson began researching the brown pelican in the 1970s at Anacapa Island off California's southern coast, one of the bird's main breeding colonies, there were only 200 nests. There are now about 5,000, he said.
"This is a special bird because it represents the coastal ecosystem and its health," said Anderson, who helped write the brown pelican's recovery plan for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "The brown pelican is an icon of oceanic health."
The official announcement came Wednesday at a press conference at Big Branch Marsh National Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana, which is dubbed the "Pelican State". The bird has been on the state's official seal since 1804, but the pelican had virtually disappeared from its coasts in the 1960s.
"It's been a long journey," said Tom Strickland, assistant secretary for fish, wildlife, parks for the Interior Department.
Strickland acknowledged that the bird's coastal habitat was in danger from rising seas and erosion, but he said wildlife officials were confident the bird was ready to be taken off the list.
The plight of the brown pelican has tracked closely with the development and birth of the nation's environmental policy and the environmental movement. It was listed as endangered before Congress passed the Endangered Species Act in 1973. And its struggle for survival, initially due to hunting for feathers to decorate hats, led to the birth of the National Wildlife Refuge System more than 100 years ago. That's when President Theodore Roosevelt created the first refuge at Pelican Island in Florida.
Nowadays the bird is easy to find along the coasts of Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, California, Washington and Oregon, and its global population, including the Caribbean and Latin America, is estimated at 650,000. It can often be seen dramatically diving headfirst into the water to emerge with a mouthful of fish.
The Bush administration in early 2008 proposed removing the bird from the endangered species list. In 1985, the Fish and Wildlife Service eliminated brown pelicans living in Alabama, Georgia, Florida and up the Atlantic Coast from the list.
The announcement does not remove all protections for the species. It will still be protected by other laws, such as the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
Mercury News staff writer Linda Goldston and Santa Cruz Sentinel reporter Shanna McCord contributed to this report.
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