Brown Pelican might come off endangered species list

Big news from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service:

BATON ROUGE, La. – Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne today celebrated the brown pelican’s remarkable recovery from the brink of extinction by formally proposing to remove the remaining protected populations of the bird along the Gulf and Pacific coasts, and in the Caribbean, and Central and South America from protection under the Endangered Species Act. Kempthorne announced the proposal at the Louisiana Governor’s Mansion in Baton Rouge during a joint appearance with Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal.


“Thanks to decades of coordinated efforts on the part of state and federal agencies, conservation organizations and private landowners, the pelican has rebounded to historic levels,” said Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne. “I’d like to thank Governor Jindal and the State of Louisiana for their contributions to the pelican’s recovery and for inviting me here to mark this milestone in conservation history.”

Kempthorne also noted that the pelican’s recovery is due in large measure to the federal ban on the general use of the pesticide DDT in 1972, after former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Rachel Carson published Silent Spring and alerted the nation to the dangers of unrestricted pesticide use.

“The brown pelican is known for its fishing displays, plunging headlong from the air into the water and rising with a mouthful of fish. In the same dramatic fashion, the pelican has pulled off an amazing recovery after a steep plunge toward extinction,” said Kempthorne. “There are now more than 620,000 brown pelicans found across Florida and the Gulf and Pacific Coasts of our nation, as well as in the Caribbean and Latin America.”

The service describes the delisting process here, and a fact sheet with photos appears here.

Photo courtesy of U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service