NOTE: This story was originally broadcast on the radio on 9/20/2023.
A video from the Pelican Petition website shows a group of pelicans repeatedly dipping their throat pouches into the water to catch spawning bluegills at Lost Grove Lake in Scott County. The group wants to know, "How many pelicans are too many?" and "Should they be managed to balance the ecosystem including gamefish?"
Scott Ford, from Geneseo, helped organize the Pelican Petition.
Ed Britton is the Savanna District Manager of the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge. After pesticides drastically reduced their numbers, he says the American White Pelican returned to the refuge in the late 1980s. Then 16 years ago, the waterfowl started nesting colonies on two islands in Iowa, and later expanded to two more islands in Illinois.
Britton says as the number of pelicans increased, the number of comments and complaints increased. He frequently reviews data about fish collected by the Iowa DNR's Mississippi River Monitoring Station in Bellevue, and the fishery at the nuclear power plant in Cordova.
Scott Ford and about 1,000 people who've signed the Pelican Petition don't think current fish counts tell the whole story. They want more information and have talked with state and federal elected officials. And he's well aware of changing conditions on the river.
Learn more at Pelican Petition.
