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28 REFLECTIONS ON THE ACT <br />lar intensive management efforts aided by the Endangered Spe- <br />cies Act have made possible the reintroduction of the peregrine <br />falcon into the eastern United States, from which it had once <br />been completely extirpated. The American alligator, once deci- <br />mated throughout the South by poachers supplying illegal <br />leather markets, has rebounded dramatically. It is no longer <br />classified as endangered. Neither is the black pelican in the <br />Southeast, where pesticide poisoning once drove it to the brink <br />of extinction. <br />Behind these success stories and others like them lies a truth <br />too seldom recognized. From fifteen years of experience with the <br />Endangered Species Act, we have learned that it is almost al- <br />ways possible to conserve endangered species-and thereby <br />promote our long-term welfare-without significantly harming <br />our short-term interests. The number of truly irreconcilable <br />conflicts between endangered species and worthy development <br />projects is astonishingly small. So too is it possible to adjust the <br />ways in which we do business to benefit endangered species <br />without harming our business. The recent effort to reduce the <br />drowning of endangered sea turtles in the shrimp fishery is no <br />exception. Turtle-excluder devices, four or five varieties of <br />which have been developed by fishermen themselves, offer a <br />means of giving essential protection to several imperiled species <br />without harming the shrimp industry. They save turtles, and <br />they catch shrimp. They are a positive solution to a serious <br />environmental problem, a solution that can benefit both the <br />environment and the shrimp industry. All that is needed is the <br />will to make the transition to their use, just as our farmers made <br />the transition from DDT to less hazardous pesticides not so <br />many years ago. Farmers who had used DDT all their lives were <br />understandably reluctant to give it up when its hazards became <br />known. But once they did, the miraculous recovery of the bald <br />eagle, the symbol of the nation, resulted. <br />Though many great successes have been achieved under the <br />Endangered Species Act, other efforts have ended in disappoint- <br />ment or failure. On June 16, 1987, the last dusky seaside spar- <br />row, asongbird of Florida's Atlantic coastal marshes, died in <br />captivity. Across the continent, in California, the Palos Verdes <br />blue butterfly has vanished. The California condor and the <br />black-footed ferret, two species that were targets of rescue ef- <br />