It has been estimated that Virginia currently supports about 500 pelican pairs. In Maryland, a single colony on a state-owned dredge spoil island in Chincoteague Bay near Assateague Island was active from 1987 through 1995. From 1996 through 1997, there were no brown pelicans nesting in Maryland. Then, in 1998, the first pelican colony in the Maryland portion of the Bay formed on Spring Island, which is located in shallow water between Bloodsworth and South Marsh islands. This year there are 143 pairs nesting at Spring Island.
Brown pelicans have few natural enemies.
Their biggest threat has been people. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, pelicans were hunted for their feathers. After World War I, pelicans were slaughtered because it was thought that they were decimating commercial fisheries. With the use of DDT in the 1940s, pelican populations plummeted. DDT, picked up by pelicans eating contaminated fish, caused the birds to lay eggs with shells so thin they broke during incubation.