Culling season is coming quickly for a controversial Great Lakes waterfowl after it received a one-year reprieve. Control of the double-crested cormorant will return this spring when the bird returns from wintering along the Pacific, Atlantic or Gulf coasts, according to federal authorities. Almost all culling was suspended last year after a federal judge ruled in May 2016 that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had failed to adequately assess its impact. With that study complete, the service can again issue permits to kill cormorants to protect property, habitat, airports, fish hatcheries and other birds.
“We’re trying to balance maintaining a stable cormorant population with managing them in the place where they’re causing damage,” said Tom Cooper, a region chief for the service’s Migratory Bird Program.
The agency will issue permits to kill up to 18,270 cormorants this year in eight Midwestern states.
Those applying for a permit must submit photos of cormorant damage, how many cormorants they wish to kill and how they plan to do it, Cooper said.
Once threatened by chemical contamination, the birds have returned in dramatic numbers.
There were only 125 nesting pairs of Great Lakes cormorants in 1972. Today, there are 40,000 pairs, and they’re causing a big problem on many of the region’s islands. Cormorant colonies have degraded many island habitats, forcing other animals to move on.
Anglers know them as the bird whose numbers blew up in the 1980s after tapping into a nearly bottomless supply of the invasive alewife. They’re incredible divers and can eat one-fourth of their weight in fish each day.
And they’re public enemy number one of many perch anglers, although how many perch they eat is hotly debated, Cooper said. Many know them by a distinct calling card–acidic feces that damages cars and buildings. They also destroy vegetation, stripping trees of leaves for their nests and poisoning the ground with their guano.
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