Over the last 10 years, while guiding kayak tours at Anacapa Island and along the southeast end of Santa Cruz Island — part of Channel Islands National Park — there’s always one seabird more than any other species that clutters the volcanic sea stacks and craggy spires at locations like Cathedral Cove and Scorpion Rock. As the years have blown by, I thought it was just me, but it seemed as if there was a steady increase in the population of California brown pelicans.

Earlier this month, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne formally proposed removing the California brown pelican from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Endangered Species List. The proposal was spurred by a 2006 petition from a nonprofit group of international scientists. Public comments will be taken for 60 days, and the proposal could become final in one year.

Opposition to the delisting is expected to be minimal because California brown pelican populations are as great as — if not exceeding — historic levels across the West, East and Gulf coasts of North America, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. There are now 620,000 of the gregarious, social birds that are known for their seven-foot wingspans outstretched while soaring in formation.

The ungainly seabirds were named a national endangered species in 1970, three years before the Endangered Species Act was passed.

“The legal protections provided by the Endangered Species Act, coupled with the banning of DDT in 1972, provided the means for the (U.S. Fish & Wildlife) Service and its partners to accelerate the pelican’s recovery,” agency director H. Dale Hall said.

“State wildlife agencies, universities, private ornithological groups and individuals participated in reintroduction efforts and helped protect nest sites during the breeding season.”

Pelicans are a great indicator of how healthy ocean environments are. They are one of the most recognizable creatures on mainland beaches with their long sword-like beaks as they dive headfirst into the ocean to fill their pouches full of anchovies.

When you don’t see them, you know something is out of balance. In the 1960s, DDT was just being recognized as a pesticide having grave effects on the ecosystem. It caused pelicans and other seabirds, peregrine falcons and bald eagles to lay thin-shelled eggs that were crushed during their incubation cycles.

Anacapa and Santa Barbara Islands are the primary rookeries of brown pelicans on the West Coast, because of their dry, secure and quiet roosting and nesting places. In 1970, only one chick out of 550 nests survived. Over the past decade their populations have rebounded dramatically, however. Above the sheer 300-foot cliffs on West Anacapa Island, the annual average has been 4,600 nesting pairs, according to official records. In 2004, the Anacapa breeding population peaked at nearly 8,000 nesting pairs. To the south, on tiny Santa Barbara Island, there has been an annual average of about 1,500 nesting pairs, with an estimated high of 4,000 nests in 2006.

“The recovery of pelicans is a tremendous milestone for conservation in our country,” said Channel Islands National Park Superintendent Russell Galipeau. “This species has been safeguarded by the Endangered Species Act, as well as sheltered within a national park, on remote islands that provide undisturbed nesting and roosting habitat.”

Although a delisting appears imminent, brown pelicans will continue to be monitored by conservation groups because DDT is still prominent in the food web, especially off of Los Angeles and Catalina Island. Also, there are other laws protecting pelicans and other seabirds.

“Thanks to decades of coordinated efforts by conservation groups,” Kempthorne said, “the brown pelican has rebounded to historic levels.”

For more information on how the endangered species delisting process works, click here.