Cormorants

[Alfie]

There is a plague of Cormorants at the moment. These birds are fresh water species as opposed to salt water and are decimating freshwater fisheries. They have come from mainland Europe(bloody EEC). I believe they can take up to 20 fish a day each. The government wants to monitor the problem and have set up a website to record sightings. The more people who report sightings the more likelyhodd of something being done about it.

http://www.cormoran****ch.org/index

Don't know why the link is showing like this but its cormoran****ch.org anyway

obviously the word t w at is not allowed on here.

[conoflexman]

leave them alone

thay have 2 eat and have more right 2 the fish than man has

[bushwacker]

Rather

AM MORE KEEN ON SHAGS THAN CORMORANTS

[big sid]

thay have 2 eat and have more right 2 the fish than man has

I dont believe that they have more right to the fish. If the fish are taken from fisheries that are stocked by man for man. A license to shoot them should be allowed as with seals up the river that are taking Salmon.Fsheries and rivers have loads of money spent on them, stocking waters etc its not in order to feed Cormorants and the such like.Any animal that is NOT native to Britain have no rights in my opinion.

[Alfie]

Tell that to the club members whos fees have gone on stocking fish only to have them all eaten withing 12 months. Its the same with the Otters. I love otters but they are now becoming a pest. They have been re-introduced but have no natural predators. Some fishery owners are having to spend upwards of 12k to put Otter fencing around their lakes. Thats 12k the fisherman has to pay extra. Its the same with the Red Kites, magnificient birds but these are now becoming a pest in certain areas. Again because there are no natural predators. There was a 130% increase in numbers last year. They are starting to take livestock in Scotland because of lack of food. Don't think it will be long before they start taking domestic pets. This an emotive subject and arguments can get heated. My opinion is you have to be very carefull when interfering with nature as one thing has to be balanced off against another. They are now talking about introducing Beavers. Madness, how long before a tree comes crashing down on a highland road and kills people?

[Bushwhacker]

The trouble is that a lot of Cormorants are now living and breeding inland instead of the coastal birds traveling to feed.
They have found the easy feeding on stocked ponds and rivers and are hammering them.
I read an article 10 year ago about a 70 acre lake being stocked with 10,000 small Carp.
After just 3 year the lake was drained and netted,they only found 300 of the original stocked fish.
The lake had a resident flock of about 15 Cormorants nesting on an island.
Guess where all the fish went.
Its not just Cormorants,Gooseanders are also doing a hell of a lot of damage to rivers.
These are not single birds,but flocks of up to 20 birds going through a pool and eating loads of small fish.
I have watched this on the Wear below Durham.
We never had this trouble till the shooting of these birds was stopped.
Its about time that culling was brought back to stop them decimating our rivers and stocked ponds....

[big sid]

Not to sure about the Red Kite, being a bird of prey what would of been the natural predator keeping there numbers in check.Another bird (bigger) of prey? As for them taking livestock and pets I cant see it myself thought they lived mainly by scavaging and eating carrion.The only livestock at risk if any would be in the lambing season but then there would be all the afterbirth crap to eat far easier than risking getting a head butt of a ewe looking after her young born.

[mick dunn]

double posting.

[mick dunn]

Its odd but i,ve never seen any on the Derwent Reservoir.

Mick.