What to do about cormorants? Are they a problem?

[storminsteve]

I jump around from site to site, and a lot of guys hate cormorants. Are they bad, or are we only noticing them because we see them get a lot of fish? Can the fish population handle cormorants eating a lot of them? Who knows a lot about the truth of the amount cormorants eat, and if they really can effect the fish populations they prey on?

With all these questions, I decided to do some research to educate myself. Since I know nothing about them other than I have seen them eating fish, I figured I would try to have an open mind. I don't want to go out and shoot them. However, I have been fishing and seen 15 or 20 of them in the surf or bay at one time. How many is too many? Are they worse on freshwater juvenile fish populations, or saltwater?

Here is one article I found. It's a little old, but I'll keep looking and try to find more. Does anyone here have a relative who works in this bird field? Thanks. :D





THE ANSWER TO CORMORANTS, US STYLE
US Boat Magazine


The fact that cormorants are illegally shot will not come as a suprise to readers of this column. In the absence of sensible procedures to control the birds anglers and fishery owners will take whatever steps they believe are appropriate in order to protect their interests. But nothing I have heard of in England comes near an incident I discovered while researching the cormorant problem.

It happened, not so long ago, in the States, where Double Crested Cormorants are wreaking havoc in the Gt. Lakes, and serves to illustrate graphically the lengths that some fishermen there have gone to, in order to highlight/resolve their problems. It's a tragic story, that should not have happened, but there are many parallels with the situation in the UK and although I believe that it could never happen here, desperate situations bring desperate measures..

Twenty seven years ago, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) statistics, the island of Little Galloo, in Lake Ontario, in New York State, had 22 nesting pairs of Double Crested Cormorants. By 1996 their numbers had grown to a staggering 8,410 pairs, in line with a general increase in the Gt. Lakes region of 29% average every year since 1970. ( In the UK the inland nesting cormorant population is growing at an average 35% from zero in 1980!) And the island became a lifeless, other than cormorants, guano encrusted wasteland.

Now this island lies approximately 10 miles, as the cormorant flies, from a small resort town Henderson Harbour. A town of 1200 people whose whole economy revolves around sport fishing, where there are some 40 charter boats, and where in season the population can rise to 10,000. Here the cormorants were viewed not only as a threat to the fish but also as a bigger threat to their local industry. ( Has anyone similarly counted their cost in overall economic terms here?).

And as the numbers rose, so too did the frustration with the Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) who were asked to help. Indeed the DEC had, in the mid 80's, already removed nests from an island 40 miles away, but this wasn't for the fishermen, it was to protect a threatened species the common tern! In 1994 too, they had also destroyed nests on two other islands 'to reduce competition with black-crowned night herons and prevent habitat degradation'. But still nothing was done for the fishermen, despite the DEC's own studies of cormorant food habits confirming anglers' claims . (Any similarities come to mind?) Later that autumn, a public hearing was arranged in Syracuse, which was attended by 400 people, but the DEC who were invited to attend, declined, sending instead two biologists from the USFWS.

The last straw for charter boat skipper Mitch Franz came when one of them made a statement to the effect that 'if cormorants are eating so many fish, then perhaps the anglers bag limit should be reduced, so that the cormorants didn't suffer.' In Franz's words 'That's what loaded my gun'

But it wasn't just Mitch's gun that was loaded. For when wildlife biologists were called to Little Galloo in July 1998, dozens of spent shotgun cartridges told the tale of a mass slaughter the likes of which had never been seen in the State before. Federal Agents investigating the incident reported the death of 856 double crested cormorants. Ten arrests followed, including Mitch Franz.

Most of the culprits were boat operators from around the town, and all of them pleaded guilty to violating the Migratory Bird Treaty of 1918. The penalties were high, 2 years probation, 6 months in-house confinement, and up to $2500 in fines. In addition the men had to make a joint contribution of $27,500 to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Back in Henderson Harbour however the shooters were acclaimed as heroes.

The local business community hosted fund raising dinners, and sold T-shirts, hats and the like for the cause. Strangely, some five months after the shootings, DEC studies confirmed that the birds were indeed eating 87.5 million fish/year including 1.3 million small mouthed bass, one of the fishermen's favourite's, while fishermen caught just 36,000. In 1999 the DEC agreed to cut the population to 1200 pairs by coating eggs with a vegetable oil, destroying nests and shooting 300 adults.

The incident, which also initiated complaints from Lake Eyrie, Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, Lake Champlain and Cape Cod, finally brought the problem to the attention of Washington. Later in the year the USEWS announced it's intent to develop a national management plan for the birds and a bill was to be introduced to Congress to allow cormorant hunting. As soon as I get to know the result I'll let you know. One problem facing the US however, if their programme goes ahead, is what their neighbours in Canada will do. Dr. Lee Harper, the director of the St Lawrence Bird Observatory and himself a fisherman and duck hunter fears that local controls will just drive the birds away, pointing out that the biggest cormorant colony on the Gt Lakes is in Canada. It seems that even in the US they have the same game of ping pong that we have here, but on a much larger scale. There too, as in Europe, an international co-ordinated approach is required, but I'm not the first to suggest that! Of course a similar situation couldn't happen in the UK, could it?

http://www.cormorantbusters.co.uk/linked%20from%20martins/US%20art.htm

[storminsteve]

Most-hated bird in the world: Sanctioned killing of cormorants continues unabated in Minnesota



By Mike Mosedale


Thursday, July 17, 2008


Earlier this month, sharpshooters with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services wrapped their annual operation at Leech Lake, the sprawling and legendary fishing Mecca in north central Minnesota. In keeping with past practices, the sharpshooters set their sights on a spit of guano-covered rocks and mostly dead vegetation called Little Pelican Island.

Little Pelican, which is owned by the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, is the site of the state's largest colony of double-crested cormorants. And for the last four years, it has also been ground zero for a burgeoning conflict between the fish-eating birds and fish-loving Minnesotans.

Using .22 caliber rifles equipped with silencers—a tactic accommodated by a recent change in state law designed to help with the effort—the sharpshooters managed to "cull" about 2,500 cormorants between ice-out and early July. That raised the four year kill total of the once-endangered birds to over 11,000.


The action came in response to widespread complaints about the resurgent cormorant population on Leech Lake, which, after a century long absence, grew from under 100 birds to a high of over 10,000 in less than a decade.

At the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, regional fisheries manager Henry Drewes said he is convinced that four years of cormorant control has helped to hasten the remarkable recovery of walleyes and yellow perch numbers at Leech Lake. Both species went into steep declines around the time the cormorant colony on Little Pelican Island was booming.

"We do know that under lower density of cormorants we've seen a dramatic rebound of walleyes," said Drewes, who also credited intensive walleye stocking and stricter fishing regulations for the comeback. Whatever the cause, gill net sampling last fall yielded the second highest walleye numbers at Leech Lake since such research began a quarter century ago. In two years, Drewes said, perch numbers went from historic lows to historic highs.

Eliminate the birds
Still, according to Drewes, "a diversity of opinions" persists among anglers and resort owners about the cormorant management plan at Leech Lake, which was devised in a collaboration between the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, the DNR and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Given the recent improvements in the fishing, Drewes said, many people appear satisfied with the current approach, which sets a goal of 500 nesting pairs for the lake. Others, he said, would prefer the cormorants entirely eliminated.

None of that is surprising. At Leech Lake and other places where cormorants have re-established robust populations, especially on the Great Lakes, the prevailing view of the bird is unrelentingly negative.

On the website of one Leech Lake resort, cormorants are characterized as "walleye gorging birds." Kill-them-all sentiments abound on fishing forums. And on one Internet chat board, an irate Leech Lake fishing guide publicly declared his intentions to take his wrist rocket along on future outings, just in case he was to encounter some of the despised birds.

"I don't know if there's any other bird that people have such a visceral hate for," observed Dr. Linda Wires, a research fellow at the University of Minnesota who calls the cormorant "the most hated bird in the world." She suspects this is partly a matter of appearance; cormorants are large, black, and resemble an ungainly cross between a crow and a goose.

But, Wires noted, most of the enmity derives from a centuries-old conflict with sport and commercial fishermen, who, despite shaky evidence, remain convinced that the cormorant's robust appetite and skills as a predator are wrecking havoc on fisheries.

"You can document four hundred years of this perception in North America that cormorants are this big destructive force," said Wires. "In fishing communities, there is just such a low tolerance, almost zero tolerance, for cormorants. It doesn't seem to matter much what the data says."

Circumstantial case
Indeed, at Leech Lake, the data connecting cormorants to walleye declines is far from definitive. While the circumstantial case appears strong—with the drop in walleyes coming around the time the cormorants expanded—association does not always equal cause, as any scientist will tell you.

Over the past three years, researchers have examined the stomach contents of adult cormorants killed at Leech Lake. Their conclusions? The cormorants typically prefer little fish, mainly yellow perch in the two to six inch range, and walleyes make up a small portion of their diet. Depending on the year, the figure has ranged from less than 1 percent to about 3 percent.

Steve Mortensen, a biologist with the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe who has worked extensively on the cormorant issue, said the food web in Leech Lake is highly complex, and cautioned against drawing too many conclusions.

"There's probably some sort of number beyond which cormorants have a negative effect on walleyes," Mortensen said. But, Mortensen added, walleye reproduction can be influenced by a lot of factors and poor class years are common, cormorants or no cormorants.

Ironically, Mortensen said, the presence of cormorants at Leech Lake may have even helped the walleye population because cormorants prey so heavily on yellow perch, which in turn often eat juvenile walleyes.

A 2007 report by the Leech Lake Division of Resource Management, which was co-authored by Mortensen, concluded that "the unexpected results of the [diet] study are complicating the justification for culling large numbers of cormorants."

"There's still a definite push from the fishermen and the resort community to rid the lake of every cormorant. But they can't deny that fishing has been good and the walleyes are definitely back," said Mortensen.
http://www.minnpost.com/stories/2008/07/16/2581/most-hated_bird_in_the_world_sanctioned_killing_of_corm orants_continues_unabated_in_minnesota





I only copied part of the article above, click the link for more. It seem pretty unbiased to me. What are some of the opinions of others here about cormorants?

[dogfish]

Taste as good as plovers? ;)

[buckethead]

I was searching old threads and found this one. Hope no peta people are reading, but I hate them. They are some of the vilest dirtiest birds around. No discrimination when eating. They can severely impact a juvenile fish population in an area.