Brain Dump on Cormorants

Photo by Michael L. Baird

Yesterday in the Burlington Free Press, Candace Page wrote an article about Fish and Wildlife officials announcing a plan to control Double-crested Cormorants and Ring-billed Gulls on Lake Champlain. After reading the article, and the 30 comments found online, I find myself perplexed by how often issues like this get forced into black & white solutions rather than a more thorough look at the complexity of wildlife management and it’s implications.  (Photo by Michael L. Baird)

Now, I’m not a wildlife biologist or a researcher. I am an educator, a naturalist, a recreationalist, a community member and a tax payer. So, pardon my brain dump, but I’m hoping this post will lead to further discussion on an issue which people feel strongly about.

  1. Double-crested Cormorants are native to North America, but they only began nesting on Lake Champlain in 1981. I guess they are non-native to Lake Champlain when it comes to breeding. The terms native and non-native can be interpreted many ways unfortunately and that adds to confusion.
  2. I immediately think about BREEDING colonial waterbirds on Lake Champlain that are impacted by the presence of cormorants breeding, like Great Blue Herons, Black-crowned Night Herons, and the Vermont endangered Common Tern.
  3. Research, I look to the research. This summer’s Our Lake, Our Future research consortium had some interesting findings on cormorants. These findings include, the cormorant population is stabilizing rather than growing, with fewer nests being found in their primary colony on Four Brothers Island this summer. AND, cormorants seem to be showing a preference for the invasive alewife as a prey item. Digging a little deeper into the idea that cormorants are competition for those who enjoy fishing, “recent work has shown that measuring their impact is difficult and interpretations are disputed” according to Birds of North America Online under the Conservation and Management section for the Double-crested Cormorant.
  4. Economics – as much as I disagree with the premise that cormorants should be controlled because it’s possible they may be impacting the Lake Champlain as a fishery, I can’t ignore that part of the Vermont/New York economy gets a boost from both recreational and sport fishing. People who enjoy fishing spend money on fishing licenses, gas for their boats, equipment, lodging, food, etc and that’s good for our communities. Their voice needs to be heard. However, I won’t ignore the science that is telling me that we don’t have proof that cormorants are a huge impact on our fish populations.
  5. Mother Nature rules and we’ve messed with her. It’s impossible to have every thing the way it was in the past and meddling with her scene needs to be incredibly thoughtful, flexible and well, humble…’cuz we’ve certainly made some bad choices.

For me, it’s not about birds vs. fish or birds vs. birds. There really is no black and white with this, it’s really complex. So before either jumping on the “environmentalist” band wagon or the “sportfishing” band wagon or whatever other polarizing stereotype that can be used with this issue….really dig in…really look at the big picture…honestly look at all the pieces and all the players, and then bring all those ideas, thoughts and opinions together when trying to find a solution.

You’re probably sitting there reading this saying…what does she think? Where does she fall on this?

I am for some level of population control, because what I do see in the research is that cormorants are impacting other colonial nesting birds who either are endangered in Vermont, like the Common Tern, or have historically bred on Lake Champlain.  I am for supporting continued research on cormorants, including research about their feeding behaviors. AND, I’m for continued education and dialogue in order to better understand conservation and management issues.

So, have at it…what’s your brain dump on cormorants?

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  • Rich
    This was a thoughtful piece, although I think it came out just a tad to the right of balanced. As you rightly state, the cormorant issue is complex. However, all too often the pro-management side wins the day.

    I am not a cormorant lover. In fact, I had no opinion about them until I started studying them on The Four Brothers and had fishermen threaten me if I did not "do something about those [expletive deleted] birds". Then I started to dive deep into the issues surrounding cormorants.

    On an international scale, the overwhelming majority of research demonstrates cormorants are not the problem. In the cases where they are genuinely a nuisance, they are merely responding to human-induced ecosystem changes.

    In Lake Champlain, it is not fair to say that cormorants are not native. To do so, one is merely picking a point in time. Twelve thousand years ago there was a mile of ice over the region, so there were no native species. Cormorant remains have been found in middens thousands of years old. From the early 1600s through the mid-1900s, cormorants were systematically killed throughout their range. Given the degree of centuries-long persecution, it is truly amazing that they were not pushed to extinction.

    Vermont based researchers state cormorants are out-competing other nesting species of waterbirds. That may be true on a few islands in Vermont waters...but I have to wonder. These same researchers, whom I respect, have said this is the case on The Four Brothers, too. After twelve years of working on those islands, I can definitively state that species diversity increases, and significantly, since the first nesting and subsequent population rise of the Double-crested Cormorant.

    I am not saying no to management of cormorant populations. Rather, I think it an ecological tragedy that we as a species continuously choose to manage species we perceive to be at conflict with us rather than first mitigate our own behaviors that allow or encourage those changes.
  • LlaKate
    I agree with Grace's post...nice balanced piece:)

    I wanted to add that cormorants like to hang out in/on the spreaders of sailboats all up and down the Eastern seaboard and poop large, bloody fish parts onto the decks of the boats which are almost impossible to scrub off...which makes many sailors less than a fan of their species. I am aware that it is not a very naturalist position...but wanted to add to the dump.
  • GracGraceeperlee
    If everyone could approach complex issues like these with some honest and balanced thought, the world would be a better place. It's never black and white, is it?

    Nice piece.
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