A brown pelican 'feeding frenzy' is an encouraging sign for the often

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California brown pelicans and cormorants cling to a rocky outcropping along the Central California coast north of Morro Bay, Calif., Friday, Nov. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael R. Blood)

MORRO BAY, Calif. – On a jagged coastline in Central California, brown pelicans gather on rock promontories, packed in like edgy commuters as they take flight to feed on a vast school of fish just offshore. The water churns in whitecaps as the big-billed birds plunge beneath the surface in search of northern anchovies, Pacific sardines and mackerel.

If awkward and wobbly in appearance on land, they are graceful once airborne. The signature pouch dangling beneath the lower bill can scoop up to 3 gallons of water with every dip into the ocean —