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Cormorant control permits show limited participation PDF Print E-mail
Written by Staff Reports   
Saturday, 21 June 2008
Fish stealers: Double-crested cormorant control permits numbers are less than expected, 121 permits in 2007, but landowners feel they are helping them keep the fish-eaters away from their ponds.
Fish stealers: Double-crested cormorant control permits numbers are less than expected, 121 permits in 2007, but landowners feel they are helping them keep the fish-eaters away from their ponds.
Some landowners happy with results

Landowners with ponds and lakes battle the double-breasted cormorant every season. The fish-eating bird is increasing in population, about 7.5 percent per year, and each bird eats up to one pound of fish per day. In ponds losing water from dry conditions, the birds can do significant damage to smaller fisheries.

To assist landowners, in the fall of 2004, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission approved double-breasted cormorant control permits that allowed landowners or their designated agents to kill cormorants on specific tracts of land.

The original estimates were for up to 2,000 permits in the first year. But the numbers of permits have remained fairly steady. “The numbers haven’t changed much,” said Jennifer Brennan, who is in charge of the permits for Texas Parks and Wildlife. “In our last report to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service dating from September 1, 2006 to August 31, 2007, we had 121 permits and 2,636 cormorants were killed based on the annual reports from the permit holders.” Brennan said some landowners felt the program was a success. “Some people say it helps a lot the first year, and they feel like the birds aren’t coming back the next year,” she said.

Another East Texas landowner recorded 9 cormorant kills last winter and the birds moved on, albeit temporarily. “When you aren’t shooting at them, they are back the next week,” he said. The long-necked, long-lived waterbird nests in colonies and tends to congregate in one area. Federal biologists estimate there are 2 million double-crested cormorants in the U.S.
 
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