The Service published a notice in todays Federal Register of its intent to write an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) evaluating the species status, known and perceived impacts on other resources, and potential management strategies. The plan will also consider the administrative, logistical, and socio-economic impacts of various management strategies.
"The Services responsibility is to maintain healthy cormorant populations across the nation. Our goal is to determine what effects current and projected cormorant populations may be having on commercial and recreational fisheries, and to use the best science available to direct future management," said Service Director Jamie Rappaport Clark.
The Service will evaluate management alternatives in the EIS, based on comments received during a public scoping process that begins with todays publication of a Notice of Intent. As part of this process, the Service will host public meetings at sites across the country to gather public input on potential options. Dates, locations and times of the meetings have not yet been determined, but will be published in a future Federal Register notice.
Potential management alternatives range from continuing present policies to implementing large-scale population control measures on breeding grounds, wintering grounds, and migration areas in the United States.
Populations of double-crested cormorants declined dramatically during the 1950s and 1960s from the effects of human persecution, the pesticide DDT and the overall declining health of many ecosystems, especially that of the Great Lakes. Today, the population is at historic highs, due in large part to the presence of ample food in their summer and winter ranges, federal and state protection, and reduced contaminant levels. The Interior population of cormorants, which includes the Great Lakes region, encompasses 61 percent of the nations breeding cormorants and it is the fastest growing of the six major North American cormorant breeding populations. From 1970-1991, in the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, the number of double-crested cormorant nests increased from 89 to 38,000, an average annual increase of 29 percent. For the contiguous United States as a whole, the breeding population increased at an average rate of1 percent per year from 1966-1994, and now stands at approximately 372,000 breeding pairs. Using estimates of one to four non-breeding birds per breeding pair yields an estimated total population of between one and two million birds.
The population resurgence of double-crested cormorants has led to increasing concern about the birds impact on commercial and recreational fishery resources. Cormorants and other waterbirds such as pelicans and herons can have adverse impacts on fish populations at fish farms, hatcheries, and sites where hatchery-reared fish are released- situations in which fish are concentrated in artificially high densities. Because cormorants are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, their nests and eggs cannot be disturbed, and birds cannot be captured or killed unless a depredation permit is obtained from the Service.
Since 1972, depredation permits allowing the take of double-crested cormorants have been authorized on a case-by-case basis, usually when negative impacts on aquaculture operations and habitat have been demonstrated. Federal take permits (State permits are also required) for birds causing depredation problems at commercial fish hatcheries and other aquaculture operations are typically issued only after non-lethal methods of control have been shown to be ineffective. The U.S. Department of Agricultures Wildlife Services Division is responsible for documenting economic losses and for recommending possible bird-control measures.
In 1998, the Service issued a Depredation Order permitting take of double-crested cormorants at aquacultural facilities in 13 states in response to economic losses caused by cormorant depredation. To take cormorants under this depredation order, aquaculturalists must first obtain certification from Wildlife Services that a cormorant depredation problem exists, that they have employed non-lethal techniques to control cormorant depredation, that non-lethal controls have not been effective, and that lethal control is warranted. The effect of cormorants on fish populations in open waters is less clear than at aquaculture facilities. Studies conducted worldwide have repeatedly shown that while cormorants can, and often do, take fish species that are valued in commercial and sport fisheries, those species usually comprise a very small proportion of the birds diet. One study found that the amount of these fish species consumed by cormorants in natural situations totals much less than 10 percent (generally less than 5 percent) of the quantity caught by commercial or sport anglers.
However, research has not yet established conclusively whether cormorants have the ability to deplete local populations of fish like perch, bass, and walleye pike. It is plausible that this may occur, and the Service is keeping an open mind on the subject as it begins the EIS. More information about cormorants, and a copy of the Notice of Intent to write an EIS, can be found on the Service web site at http://www.fws.gov/r9mbmo/issues/cormorant/cormorant.html
"This process offers us a chance to examine the scientific evidence and reach a consensus about the future management of these birds. I urge everyone concerned to make their voices heard as we prepare this document," Clark said.
Written comments on the scope of the EIS should be submitted to the Chief, Office of Migratory Bird Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 4401 N. Fairfax Dr., Room 634, Arlington, VA 22203. Comments may also be submitted electronically to the following address: cormorant_eis@fws.gov">. Public comments will be accepted for at least 60 days. The Service will publish the closing date for public comments at the time it announces details of public scoping meetings.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal Federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting, and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 93-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System comprised of more than 500 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands, and other special management areas. It also operates 66 national fish hatcheries, 64 fish and wildlife management assistance offices and 78 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces Federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Aid program that distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.
DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Q. What is a double-crested cormorant?
A. The double-crested cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus) is a long-lived, colonial-nesting waterbird native to North America. One of 38 species of cormorants worldwide, and one of six species in North America, it is usually found in flocks, and is sometimes confused with geese or loons when on the water.
Q. Where do they live?
A. Double-crested cormorants can be found in many locations throughout North America. They nest along the coast from southwest Alaska to Mexico, and on lakes from central Alberta, James Bay and Newfoundland, south along the coast to the Gulf of Mexico. Along the Pacific coast and the southern Atlantic coast, populations are resident year-round. Cormorants spread from the interior of North America into the Great Lakes between 1913 and the early 1930s. The Great Lakes basin population migrates along the Atlantic coast and Mississippi River drainage, to overwinter in the southeastern Gulf states and Gulf of Mexico, returning north in April.
Q. How do they nest?
A. Cormorants breed in colonies ranging from several pairs to a few thousand. They build their nests of twigs and branches beginning in April, usually in trees or on the ground, on islands favored also by other colonial nesting birds, like great blue herons, great egrets, black-crowned night-herons, cattle egrets, gulls, and terns. At age three or four, adults are ready to breed. Eggs are laid in mid-to-late April, and hatching occurs approximately 25 days later. A typical nest has two or three chicks. These chicks can fly at 5-6 weeks and accompany adults to feed at 7 weeks. They are independent of the adult birds at 10 weeks.
Q. What about their population?
A. The size of the North American breeding population of the double-crested cormorant has been estimated at about 372,000 pairs, or 852 colonies. Using values of one to four non-breeding birds per breeding pair yields an estimated total population of 1-2 million birds. The double-crested cormorant breeds widely throughout much of the coastal and interior portions of the United States. It has been found breeding in 46 of the 48 contiguous United States. However, it is not uniformly distributed across this broad area. Sixty-one percent of the breeding birds belong to the Interior population and it is the fastest growing of the six major North American breeding populations. From 1970-1991, in the Great Lakes region (American and Canadian), which lies within the range of the Interior population, the number of double- crested cormorant nests increased from 89 to 38,000, an average annual increase of 29 percent. For the contiguous United States as a whole, the breeding population increased at an average rate of1 percent per year from 1966-1994.
Q. Will the population continue to increase?
A. The total population will probably continue to increase in the short term. In the long term, the population will likely decline and then stabilize due to disease, lack of available nesting habitat, or changes in food resources. Because cormorants are not typically preyed upon by other species, their populations are regulated primarily by these other factors.
Q. What do double-crested cormorants eat?
A. They eat fish. Adults eat an average of one pound per day, usually comprised of small (less than 6 inch) bottom dwelling or schooling "forage" fish. They are opportunistic and generalist feeders, preying on many species of fish, but concentrating on those that are easiest to catch. Because the ease with which a fish can be caught depends on a number of factors (distribution, relative abundance, behavior, etc.), the composition of a cormorants diet can vary considerably from site to site and throughout the year.
Q. Do double-crested cormorants eat brown and lake trout, steelhead, and salmon?
A. Yes, particularly when they are small. Recently stocked schools of hatchery fish of these species are most at risk. Cormorants are attracted to these fish, as are large predatory sport fish. After these stocked fish disperse in the lake, they are much less likely to be eaten by a cormorant. In fact, fish species valued by sport and commercial anglers make up a very small proportion of the cormorants diet in open lake waters. Additional research will help scientists learn more about this important issue.
Q. Do double-crested cormorants significantly affect fish populations in open waters?
A. This is an important question without a definitive answer at this time. The perception among anglers in some locations is that cormorants are to blame for decreases in catch. However, according to dietary studies of cormorants on New Yorks Oneida Lake, summer resident and migrating birds can diminish the number of catchable size walleye pike and yellow perch available to anglers, but overall, cormorants are not a threat to the continued viability of these fish populations. On Lake Champlain, studies indicate yellow and white perch are the main prey species for cormorants. However, the effect of this predation on these populations is not known. Also, a nationwide survey of state fish and wildlife agencies conducted in 1996-97 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service did not reveal situations where cormorants are depleting sport fish populations. The Service has conducted an extensive review of published studies, most of which indicate that fish species valued by sport and commercial anglers comprise a very small proportion of the cormorants diet.
However, studies conducted last year by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the U.S. Geological Survey implicate predation by double-crested cormorants in the decline of smallmouth bass in the eastern basin of Lake Ontario. Those studies constitute the first scientific evidence provided to the Agency suggesting any significant effects in open waters of cormorant predation on a sportfish species. In light of these studies, it is plausible that cormorants can have an effect on populations.
Q. Do double-crested cormorants eat the bait or forage fish required by sport fish to survive?
A. Yes, they eat the same bait or forage fish consumed by sport fish like trout, salmon, walleye pike and bass. A variety of research conducted in the Great Lakes suggests that cormorants consume less than 10 percent of the total amount of forage fish available. This consumption has not been demonstrated to affect sport fish populations. Recent research in Lake Erie indicates that all the forage fish consumed by cormorants amounted to only about one percent of the forage fish needed to support populations of walleye pike, a valuable sport fish. Cormorants are only one of many factors, such as water quality, aquatic habitat, other natural predation, and angler catch, that can affect forage fish populations.
Q. Are cormorants protected in the U.S.?
A. Yes, double-crested cormorants are one of approximately 800 species protected under the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, and subsequent amendments. This act was first passed to implement the terms of the convention between the U.S. and Great Britain (on behalf of Canada) for the protection of migratory birds. Excessive market hunting of migratory birds prompted this convention, which was later followed by conventions with Mexico, Japan, and Russia. Cormorants were first protected through an amendment to the Mexican convention in 1972. Because cormorants are not a part of the U.S. and Great Britain convention, they are not protected by the federal Canadian government, and receive protection there only at the provincial level.
Q. Does the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service control the number of double-crested cormorants when they cause damage?
A. In part. The Services primary means in limiting double-crested cormorants is through the issuance of depredation permits under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. These permits enable others to take cormorants and/or their eggs and nests in order to alleviate damage. Such permits are issued only after the landowner or management authority has applied for a permit, has demonstrated that damage has occurred, and has tried a variety of non-lethal management activities which have proven ineffective on their own. Before issuing a permit, the Service determines that any authorized takes have a reasonable chance of resolving the damage, and that the takes will not have a significant negative impact on the migratory bird resource. As a landowner, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could undertake control of cormorants on Service-owned lands--like National Wildlife Refuges. If this were determined necessary to protect endangered or threatened species, or other species of management concern, the Service could do this under the authority of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The Service would not normally conduct cormorant management activities on other public or private lands.
Q. If the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service doesnt control cormorants, then who does?
A. Landowners are the persons most often responsible for taking migratory birds causing damage to their private property. They can do so only after obtaining a depredation permit from the Service. Alternatively, wildlife management authorities can apply for a permit. Typically state fish and wildlife agencies apply for depredation permits to take migratory birds causing damage to public resources, including other natural resources such as endangered species.
Q. What is the role of the U.S. Department of Agriculture?
A. The U.S. Department of Agricultures Wildlife Services program is responsible for providing federal leadership in managing problems caused by wildlife. USDA/Wildlife Services provides assistance to agencies, organizations, and individuals in resolving wildlife damage problems on both public and private lands, including National Wildlife Refuges. They provide recommendations first for a variety of non-lethal management options, including harassment and habitat alteration. If these activities prove ineffective, the USDA/Wildlife Services may recommend a limited lethal take of migratory birds to supplement the non-lethal management activities. Before the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issues permits for lethal depredation activities to a landowner, a wildlife damage report must be submitted by the USDA/Wildlife Services in support of this recommendation. In addition to consultation, this agency also works under privately funded cooperative agreements to implement damage management programs on public and private lands.
Q. How are the state fish and wildlife agencies involved?
A. The state agencies oversee on-the-ground management of wildlife in their states. In the case of federally protected species, such as cormorants, any lethal takes must also be done under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or USDA/Wildlife Services. In the Great Lakes basin, the States of New York and Vermont have received depredation permits for cormorant control activities involving nest and egg destruction. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued these permits upon the recommendations of the USDA/Wildlife Services to reduce competition with other colonial waterbirds, including common terns and black-crowned night herons. In addition, New York has received authority to shoot cormorants at fish stocking sites in Lake Ontario. On Oneida Lake, New York is also working with USDA/Wildlife Services to harass cormorants from the lake during the fall migration. The states have also begun assessing the cormorant-fishery issue on a larger scale. Recently, the state agencies in the Great Lakes sponsored workshops on cormorant-fishery issues, in coordination with the USDA/Wildlife Services and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. On Lake Champlain, the States of Vermont and New York, in cooperation with USDA/Wildlife Services, have completed an Environmental Assessment to further guide their lake-wide cormorant management activities.
Q. Does the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service currently issue depredation permits for cormorant control in order to protect sport fish in open waters, or the local economy supported by sport or commercial fishing?
A. No. The Service issues depredation permits only when control is biologically justified to conserve threatened and endangered species, or other species of management concern, to protect property interests on private or public land, and to preserve human health and safety. The Service will continue to consider issuing depredation permits to state fish and wildlife agencies for controlling cormorants taking fish during stocking, when other stocking methods have proven ineffective. However, once these fish are free-ranging, the Service will not issue permits for taking cormorants feeding in natural environments.
Q. Does the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service currently allow the control of double-crested cormorants at aquacultural facilities?
A. Yes. Since 1998, the Service has permitted the killing, without federal permits, of double-crested cormorants at aquaculture facilities in 12 Southeast states and in Minnesota when non-lethal methods are ineffective in preventing depredation. Aquaculture producers in other states must apply for and operate under a federal permit to control cormorants if a need is demonstrated.
Q. Has the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service taken other actions to manage double-crested cormorants in addition to issuing depredation permits?
A. Yes. The Service has periodically funded population surveys in coordination with states and the Canadian Wildlife Service to monitor the species throughout the Great Lakes basin. The Service has also funded and conducted food habit studies in order to determine the diet of cormorants at different locations in the Great Lakes, as well as a range-wide status assessment of the Great Lakes cormorant population in order to gather the biological information needed to develop a management plan.
Q. What will be in the management plan?
A. The plan will review the distribution and population status of double-crested cormorants, their positive values, damage and conflicts associated with them. It will also provide a detailed description of management objectives for cormorants, while describing approved measures for reaching those objectives.
Q. How will the EIS relate to the management plan?
A. The primary purpose of the EIS is to serve as a planning and decision-making document for federal officials, while allowing for public input into the process. The EIS process requires the Service to analyze and consider a wide range of management options in developing a management strategy, and also to respond to public comments about those options. Once the EIS is completed, the management option chosen by the service will form the foundation of a detailed management plan. However, the EIS and management plan processes are one and the same.
Q. When will the EIS be completed?
A. While no one can predict with certainty how long it will take to prepare the EIS, the Service plans to have it completed in the spring of 2001. All efforts will be made to complete the analysis and issue a decision in the shortest possible amount of time.
Q. What management alternatives will be evaluated in the EIS?
A. The Service will identify a series of management alternatives that will be evaluated in the EIS, based on public comments received during a public scoping process that begins with the publication of a Notice of Intent. Alternatives being considered for evaluation range from continuing present policies to implementing active management options such as harassment and nest destruction or large-scale population reduction.
Q. What opportunities will there be for public comment?
A. As part of the scoping process, the Service will host public meetings at sites across the country to discuss potential management alternatives and to gather public comments on those alternatives or other potential remedies proposed by the public. Dates, locations and times of the meetings have not yet been determined, but will be published in a future Federal Register notice. Once the alternatives to be analyzed in the EIS are identified, the public will have an additional opportunity to comment on the draft EIS. The Service will respond to all substantive issues raised by public comments on the draft before publishing a final EIS and issuing a decision. Written comments on the scope of the EIS may be submitted to the Chief, Office of Migratory Bird Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 4401 N. Fairfax Dr., Room 634, Arlington, VA 22203. Comments may also be submitted electronically to the following address: cormorant_eis@fws.gov">
Q. Can I obtain information on the Internet on double-crested cormorants and what is being done to manage them?
A. Yes, on-line information is available at several websites:
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/Office of Migratory Bird Management: http://www.fws.gov/r9mbmo/issues/cormorant/cormorant.html
Canadian Wildlife Service: http://www.cciw.ca//glimr/data/cormorant-fact-sheet/intro.html http://www1.ec.gc.ca/cgi-bin/foliocgi.exe/canbird.nfo/query=doc/{t266}?
McMaster University: http://www.science.mcmaster.ca/Biology/Harbour/SPECIES/CORMRNT/CORMRNT.HTM
U.S. Department of Agriculture/Wildlife Services: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ws/nwrc/cormsymp.htm
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/Lake Champlain Fish and Wildlife Resources Complex: http://www.fws.gov/r5lcfwro/lcfwrc.html
U.S. Geological Survey/Patuxent Wildlife Research Center: http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/bbs/htmac/a1200.html http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/mlist/h1200.html http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/bbs/htm96/trn626/tr1200.html
LinksOffice of Migratory Bird Management - Cormorant information
