Video: Bald Eagle Fishes For Pike

Dan Goff was meandering down the St. Croix River in Minnesota when he came across an unlikely sight. A bald eagle was injured, and struggling to stay afloat. He watched as the bird slowly made it to shore, and then quickly realized the reality of the situation. The bird wasn't hurt; far from it. In fact, clasped under its talons was an enormous pike that likely weighed as much as the bird itself. The eagle took a proud stand atop its meal, and then began to feast.

Such a sight was made possible by the Endangered Species Act.

RELATED: Endangered Species Act Significantly Weakened

For much of the 20th century, U.S. agriculture used a synthetic insecticide called DDT. DDT was extremely effective at killing insects, but runoff flushed rivers and streams with the chemical, and ultimately contaminated the fish within those ecosystems. Bald Eagles eating those fish would themselves become contaminated, and the chemical would thin their eggshells until they became obsolete. This effectively destroyed the reproductive system of the species and by 1963, there were only 413 Bald Eagle breeding pairs in the entirety of the lower 48. After the plight of the birds became apparent, government agencies began to step in, and a series of protections, including the Endangered Species Act in 1973, were enacted to save the birds from extinction in the lower 48. Soon after DDT was banned, and by 2007 the population of breeding pairs numbered more than 5,000. Though Bald Eagles may now be thriving, innumerous species throughout the U.S. are in decline, and are in many ways reliant on the Endangered Species Act to prevent their extinction. Recent changes to the act will now take economic factors into account when providing protections; a move which has the potential to eradicate a plethora of fragile species.