California brown pelicans fly off after being released by the International Bird Rescue Research Center at the beach in San Pedro, Calif., in this 2010 file photo.GRANTS PASS, Ore. – Scientists and conservation groups are worried the crash in West Coast sardines that has triggered deep cutbacks in commercial fishing is also starving brown pelicans that feed off California, Oregon and Washington.
Federal budget cuts have left scientists unable to do the research to figure out exactly what is going on. But the bits and pieces emerging don’t look good.
“Prey availability for the pelican is definitely something we are concerned about, and we are making efforts to come up to speed ourselves along with other resource agencies,” said Jeff Phillips, deputy assistant field supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Ventura, Calif. “We are really in the information gathering mode right now.”
That frustrates Anna Weinstein, seabird program manager for the National Audubon Society in San Francisco.
“We don’t think it is OK for the service to do a high five and walk away from the brown pelican just as it seems to be entering troubled waters,” she said.