CORMORANTS DOWN: Fish Gorging Predators Controlled by DNR
October 3, 2013
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Double-crested cormorants haunt fish populations in Saginaw Bay and the upper Great Lakes.
"No one likes unregulated bullies at the top of a food chain," says the Northern Michigan Conservation Network (NMCN)about cormorants.
Especially, fishermen, is a comment that could be added.
When the NMCN found "a shocking explosion of their numbers" in an annual May trip to Beaver Island in 2008, the DNR and partner organizations sprang into action.
The population of double-crested cormorants (DCC) took a big hit in the past year, according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
Michigan cormorant populations have been declining since 2007, when there were around 30,000 nests, with the decline estimated at 34.5 percent.
The latest nest count, in 2011, found 19,205 nests and the DNR has set a goal of 5,000 to 12,500 nests.
This year has seen a continuation of reduction in breeding colony sizes in lakes Huron and Michigan. Control activities include oiling eggs and shooting birds. Last year alone more than 13,000 birds were killed and nearly 3,000 nests oiled.
The birds, that eat about 1.25 pounds of fish a day, are now the subject of a diet study in Saginaw Bay.
"In 1972, cormorants were added to the list of species protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and became just one more victim of the worsening health of the Great Lakes," observed NMCN in a recent report.
An update on the cormorant control project was presented at the meeting of the Michigan Natural Resources Commission on May 9 and can be viewed at nmconservationnetwork.org.
"Over time, wildlife conservation measures and the steady reduction in levels of DDT resulted in the resurgence of their numbers to what became historic highs."
"Although most researchers believed that DCC population levels would eventually stabilize (as is the case with most wildlife species), the effects that the birds were having on fish species and island nesting habitat was increasingly found to be too deleterious to be left unaddressed.
"In addition to their voracious appetites, DCC nesting sites and habits were increasingly displacing other wildlife species and their highly acidic excrement kills roosting trees, shoreline vegetation and defiles beaches throughout the northern Great Lakes."
A partnership of sportsmen, conservation groups and Native American tribal leadership headed by Peter H. Butchko, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Michigan Wildlife Services Director, developed plans to mitigate the impact cormorants were having within the framework of their protected species status.
Agencies authorized to manage cormorants include the DNR, USDA Wildlife Services, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and state tribal representatives of the Chippewa Ottawa Resource Authority, Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, and Bay Mills Indian Community.
Estimates for the Les Cheneaux Island area indicated that the cormorant population was reduced by 15 percent the first year alone, according to NMCN.
An Environmental Impact Statement, including a DNR regional management approach, first drafted in 2003 is currently under review with a deadline of 2014 and could be extended.
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