Sent to IDA by John Pitlo – IA DNR
Cormorant culling planned
Walleye reductions attributed to birds
BY JOHN MYERS
Duluth News Tribune
The federal government has proposed killing thousands of cormorants on Leech Lake, where the big, black birds are blamed for reducing the walleye population.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Wednesday released its environmental assessment of the plan to address the situation on Leech Lake, where some people say double-crested cormorants are out of control.
The public is being asked to comment on a range of alternatives – including doing nothing and using nonlethal tactics to reduce numbers of the fish-eating birds.
But the favored plan would reduce cormorant numbers there by 80 percent, from more than 2,500 nesting pairs to about 500, by shooting birds and by rendering eggs sterile so they don’t hatch.
The birds, usually protected under federal law, also may be harassed, their nests destroyed and live birds captured and euthanized. The public has 30 days to comment.
“The preferred alternative’s goal is to have fewer than 500 nesting pairs on Leech Lake,” said Rachel Levin, spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the Twin Cities.
The Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe will lead the effort with cooperation from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s animal damage control unit, which do the work.
Lee Pfannmuller, director of ecological services for the DNR, said control efforts probably would start early this summer. Crews will shoot birds and rub vegetable oil on eggs. Adults would continue to sit on the eggs and won’t try to re-nest, but the eggs would never hatch, so the colony won’t expand.
Cormorants are native to the region, but the toxic pesticide DDT nearly wiped out their population in the 1960s. With DDT banned, cormorants have staged a remarkable comeback across the Great Lakes states and parts of Canada during the past 20 years.
So far, efforts to scare them away or prevent them from nesting have failed in most areas, prompting wildlife managers to seek lethal controls.
“We tried to remove their nesting materials last year on their island but their numbers still doubled,” said John Ringle, fish and wildlife director for the Leech Lake Band.
On Leech Lake, cormorant numbers have exploded from just a few in the 1980s to 73 nesting pairs in 1998 to 2,524 nesting pairs in 2004. Including juveniles and non-nesting adults, there were nearly 10,000 cormorants on Leech Lake last year, nearly all of which nest on barren Little Pelican Island, located on Leech Lake band property.
While cormorants always have used Leech Lake, it appears their numbers may be higher now than even before DDT.
“This may really be an issue of limited habitat availability. They don’t have many good places to nest now, so as their numbers increase, they are really focused in a few areas,” Pfannmuller said.
Because each adult cormorant eats about pound of fish daily, the birds are blamed for helping deplete the lake’s once famous walleye population to a point where some anglers and tourist businesses are angry. The birds could be eating more than a ton of Leech Lake fish each day.
“It’s clear we have a problem. I fish the lake a lot and there aren’t any smaller walleyes out there. Something is taking them out,” Ringle said. “We know cormorants eat some walleye and perch. We don’t know how much. But the fact the big drop in walleye hit at the same time the cormorants are increasing can’t be just a coincidence.”
In an effort to rebuild the walleye populations, the DNR will begin stocking the lake. Anglers are being forced to cut back their take of walleyes. Starting in May, Leech Lake’s daily walleye limit will be lowered from six fish to four, and all walleyes between 18 and 26 inches must be thrown back. One trophy over 26 inches is allowed.
Cormorants also are muscling out a threatened bird, the wrongly named common tern, which nests on the same islands. Pfannmuller said terns may be permanently lost on Leech Lake, one of their few strongholds in the region, if action isn’t taken. Tern numbers already have declined from 1,500 nesting pairs to 200 pairs.
While it’s not certain cormorants are the main culprit behind the walleye decline, officials say they have enough proof to act.
“There’s compelling enough evidence with the fisheries decline and the tern situation to warrant some strong action,” Pfannmuller said.
Cormorants are federally protected under an international migratory bird treaty. But a 2003 federal rule allows states to take action to cull the birds if they are harming fish farms or natural resources. Minnesota has leeway to kill up to 7,500 birds each year of about 16,000 that summer in the state.
Cormorants are under scrutiny on Knife Island on Lake Superior and are expanding in number on Lake of the Woods as well. About 25 were killed on Knife Island last year, under the DNR’s approval, where concerns were raised about the birds eating stocked steelhead trout. Elected officials also have called for killing the birds on Lake of the Woods, where 4,200 pairs nest in various spots.
“We have the ability under this to do controls in other areas of the state. But, for this year, our focus really is on Leech Lake. That’s where the most immediate problem is,” Pfannmuller said.
