Wildlife Officials to Kill 4,000 Cormorants

Associated Press ^ | 5-27-05 | GREGG AAMOT

[Pharmboy]

How long will it take for the walleyes to come back in reasonable numbers?

[Rodney King]

Although cormorants were nearly wiped out by the pesticide DDT in the 1960s and 1970s,

Not true.

[handy old one]

cormorants: the bird most likley to be caught while fishing, they love chasing bait fish dead or alive.

[Pharmboy]

Can you elaborate? I had only heard that bal eagles were affected by DDT. What's the real story?

[Pharmboy]

In my experience observing cormorants in the bays of Long Island and on Long Island Sound, they seem like solitary critters. In this story they sound communal. Can they exist in both manners?

[Mikey_1962]

Cormorants are the most butt-ugly bird on the Great Lakes. The like to sit in dead trees on Lake St Clair.

[billorites]

Hmmm... Comorant!

[handy old one]

When they find bait fish they eat in large groups.

[San Jacinto]

Cormarants look like Helen Thomas and eat fish the way Ted Kennedy drinks scotch. They should be wiped from the face of the earth.

[Rodney King]

Can you elaborate? I had only heard that bal eagles were affected by DDT. What's the real story?

Search around junkscience.com All of the scientific panels were against banning DDT, and there was never any evidence that DDT was causing any birds to have "thin egg shells" or any of that nonsense. The government banned DDT over the advice of scientists over political pressure. Since then, literally million around the world have died of Malaria, which had become practically non-existent by the early 70's. Malaria came roaring back when DDT was banned.

Yes, the eagles and such have made a come-back since DDT was banned. But that is also when it became illegal to shoot them.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Who needs walleyes ? There are plenty of perfectly good bullheads in Watertown, MN, home of the Bullhead Days Festival.

[headstamp]

(On a recent trip out to Little Pelican Island with reporters, Steve Mortensen, a fish and wildlife biologist for the Leech Lake band, said he regrets the bird's fate.)

"It's a human thing. We are dealing with who is going to get the walleye," he said with a shrug. "That's the bottom line."

This from a "Professional" wildlife biologist. Unbelievable. Just shrug and succumb to the emotional side of the argument instead of speaking from knowledge on game management. Why not state the birds are not going to be wiped out but brought down to more manageable numbers. When the over population of birds virtually wipe out the walleyes in the lake they will simply move on to another lake.

This is right up there with the geese overpopulation problems on most lakes and ponds in my area. The lakes and shorelines become a total cesspool from the geese but then there is the wailing and gnashing of teeth when the DEC tries to cull the flocks to get the bird numbers to a more manageable level.

The tug of war between wildlife management science and emotion continues......

Regards

[Cacique]

Aparently yes

[SavageRepublican]

They are "communal"...they nest in colonies numbering anywhere from tens to thousands, usually on islands. The STENCH is unbelieveable.

In some parts of the world, there are colonies where after many years, the cormorant poop is so thick that it is actually harvested as a nitrogen source for fertilizers. Hence the nickname "guano bird".

Incidentally, as an undergrad at UMass-Boston, I worked with the guy who wrote the Double-Crested Cormorant's entry for the "Birds of North America" (a set of reports that is intended to provide complete, definitive accounts of the biology of every bird species in North America).

[SavageRepublican]

Leech Lake and "Jeremy-bird" ping

[Cacique]

[Old North State]

You are quite right about the geese. In fact, here in NC a cottage industry has arisen for "pond control" which means getting rid of the geese. The method de jure is to use border collies to scare then off. Where to they go? That's someone else's problem, but it stops the whining over killing them.

[Roccus]

I don't know where you were looking, but there are colonies of these garbage pails all over the Island.

[AmericanChef]

-"Kill them all," he says of the voracious, predatory birds.-

I have to admire his decisiveness.

[beltfed308]

Down here in the Florida Keys they are nothing but air rats. Flocks of them abound and they mess everywhere. Just as bad as geese.