The U.S. Department of Interior announced today that the brown pelican will be taken off the Federal endangered list.
“At a time when so many species of wildlife are threatened, we once in a while have an opportunity to celebrate an amazing success story,” said U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in a news release. “Today is such a day. The brown pelican is back!”
The prehistoric looking bird, which have a large presence on Ventura’s Channel Islands, were decimated by the impacts of DDT, which made their eggshells so weak they would crack during incubation.
On Anacapa Island — where there are now an average of 4,500 breeding pairs — there were no successful nests during the hardest-hit years. The bird’s recovery is largely credited to the 1972 ban on DDT, though much of the pesticide still lingers in the environment today.
Wednesday’s announcement is nearly the final step in taking the birds off the list, a process which began last year. It will officially be off the list 30 days after the ruling is published in the Federal Register.
