Document 463waavEvp0Ek83N6odbEqE1

THE NEW YORK TIMES VS MnmiAV Tin.V7.-W5 [Pesticides ^gain Threaten Life of Louisiana Pelicans I lOUO.! b By ROY REED l , ji., -. ;>>*! f yht M* Tort TlnM | NEWL,&, 1ORLEANS, July O^that the pelican, like tome oth-; Farm pesticMei art once again; er birds, stores fat in its body threaten** to destroy Louisia iand taps this fat for energy na'! itate oird, the brown can. 1 ;jr About 80 per' cent^of state'! floek, rebuilt Mm peli ,J the! pelt-i when under stress. The authori ties theorize that the stress! caused by high water might! cans imported tooth-PloHdt in [have induced (he.pelicans to] recent years, have1 died over their stared !{n|t hi which the last two mouCm, Vie Loui high concentration^ of the pes siana Wildlife tui* "Fbheriei ticides ha^dk been found. By 1 Commission stM'leet week. "It looks lifts: p lee down I to 100 birds from -a taetocked population of more thin 450," | j. Burton Angella, the 'commis sion director, said. '`Chemical [analyses indicate the presence of at least poetitMes or pesti cide residues inthe brain tissue of ths dead birds.1* using thisfjfat, thl birds re leased largf smbuiHi Of poison into their'aigestivf`Systems. , The brown:pelican grows asi largo as 54 incites tong and .has a w4bgsprea4 Of Mm and [a half feet, according tb Roger iTortr Peterson, the ornithologist an^u^r .^qf "Field/.Guide He Identified the chemtcle as endtfb, dieldriri, toxaphens, Once Large DDE <d"nredkdown prbduct of ,, DDT), BMC (benzene hexachlor- alOni Me), HCB-4Morobcnserfs),ifcjil 1b * (polychlortnatedbiphenyli) and ` beptachldFWpoxide. ' , He am the bralhl Of all the bird*'tested contained le- thsl dosdh ofendrin, a pesticide widely deed In agriculture In the watlhhed of tM Mississip pi RlverJf^ yi " u LHved in- laige flocks' American coasts. But leieen-flfttes, It began much .of tti habitat, dn ufulstana, Califorlouth Xirpllnt, after started ``using large of chlpriuted hydro* o kiir triseda. v rhich has.'Poen banned in the United States Traoed Along \U River "We have -ample evideno* to IndicaU thatsnuoh of the jendrln is coming down the Mis sissippi liver from states to Ithe northr,nf..u" Mr. AnjeHe Jibexported, got much blame for/the virtual --, _ m of the pelican in LobWana during tije early 1900*s. ` State officials begin restock ing UMfbirdi late In that decade Th commission staff U be ginning toxstudy the pesticide content of.vffshtn the-Oulf of Mexicotiaround the mouth of the Mtsibaippi. The pelican wnk ^pelicans imported from FtaMfibwhere pesticide.runoff apparefitly caused lets damage. Tne commission brought 465 birds from Florida in tne years after 1969 and turned most feeds on flfb nd presumably [of them loose irvBaratlrir Bay, Ingesu the pesticides from the [just west of the mouth of the: [Mississippi River. 1 Richard Yancey! assistant dU The new birds reproduced reotor of the commission, said enough offspring'to offset ns- that so far only low Jevele [tural deaths until this spring. of pesticides had bean found Then the wildlife offidifa be* EIn the few fish that have been aiktb set, degd*birds oti'tHe studied. A paUeani eats 90/ to eeches. Whin they investigat 100 fWh gives It a day, ha soldi which a high*concentration ed. tion they found that the popula had been disastrously de> of thofncaatewpotspafc ' plated. . MeTaddan Duffy, bformatbo Mr. Duffy said, Mwe have offioar for the omentaakm,-said a man there now doing nothing ths > agency's sNMIMs experts buncotlntlng (item, by air and believed that tide gprinfs Ugh b*boetM ' prater on the Btlaabeippi might: More deed birds are being have caused tiiti Heavy pelican| found every day. Mr . Duffy mortality. ' - " ! said he believed most of the He explainsd this by notingl remaining 100 would die. July 9, 1975 From: G. F. Barton To: W. B. Papageorj D. Wood FYI HONS 030986