Environment

Brown Pelican taken off the Endangered List in California

by Amy Judd | February 21, 2009 at 04:06 pm

606 views | 4 Recommendations | 5 comments

The Brown Pelican has been taken off the Endangered Species in California, making this the first time that the California Fish and Game Commission has voted to remove a species from the list as a result of it having recovered its numbers.

Last year there was some alarm as the pelicans were starting to mysteriously fall from the sky, but the population has now seemed to have stabalized. The birds are now a common site on the California coast and the species really has bounced back.

“Every Californian should be proud of this landmark decision,” said (California Fish & Game) Commission president Cindy Gustafson. “The California Endangered Species Act is both loved and hated as we struggle to balance human impacts on our native species’ needs.

“This is a story of magnificent success. In the 38-year history of our protection of endangered species under the act, the California brown pelican is the first species to fully recover. We hope to have many more.”

For a species to be delisted they really have to show an increased breeding population. The decision will now have to be reviewed by the State Office of Administrative Law before it will become official, but the Pelican will still be protected and it will still be illegal to kill or harm a Brown Pelican

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Pythiian1

at 17:18 on February 21st, 2009

I really hope that it's a good sign because I'm always wary of species being taken off the list, then left vulnerable to some humans who don't value wildlife.

kashyap_hc

at 20:22 on February 21st, 2009

kashyap_hc has contributed a photo to this story.

kdm1000

at 10:56 on February 22nd, 2009

I was on the Galveston ferry when I took this Photo, I am not from the area but it looks like there are a lot of Brown Pelican in the Galveston area.

kdm1000 has contributed a photo to this story.

Lplaskon

at 16:19 on February 23rd, 2009

This Pelican was a very approachable bird. I am sure it became desensitized to people bringing bait fish to the docks each day.

Lplaskon has contributed a photo to this story.

Deb437 (not verified)

at 12:51 on March 5th, 2009

I am a bit concerned that they were delisted even though there were news reports in January of hundreds of Brown Pelicans dying from some unknown cause. There are reports that they are showing up in odd places, disoriented, weak and starving. The scientists are most concerned because these are adults and they don't know what is causing the problem. I wish that this mystery had been solved before they were delisted - it would be a shame for them to be delisted just to have to be relisted if this problem isn't resolved.