# Cormorants Wipe Out Game Fish Around Beaver Island



## USST164 (May 6, 2008)

Where was the DNR.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008806150597

Some in the DNR are barking out B S that the Cormorants just eat trash fish.

Remember the news about Alpena ???

http://blog.mlive.com/watershedwatch/2008/05/wildlife_managers_thinning_cor.html


http://www.miningjournal.net/page/content.detail/id/509464.html


Heres a DNR document pointing out the cormorants are eating game fish in numbers.

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/CormorantManagementPlansforLakeHuron_159121_7.pdf


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## USST164 (May 6, 2008)

Oh My God , 60,000 Cormorants minimum around the Beaver Island chain , eating 30 tons of fish a day minimum. Oh My God.

See page # 32 on the link.

http://www.beaverbeacon.com/beaver-island-archive/2006-06


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## Linda G. (Mar 28, 2002)

interesting, but not new. I wrote articles to this effect five and ten years ago. No one paid any attention, especially the DNR or the feds. 

I wrote, with one of the CMU biology professors who teaches on the island in the summer, a complete write up on the situation, and a study done by CMU researchers on the island, for MOOD magazine at least five years ago. Re-wrote it for Woods and MON after that. 

The worst damage occurred years ago, now the cormorant populations, all over the Great Lakes thanks to the resulting food shortages that are happening, are dropping in numbers. 

There may not be bass left on Lake Michigan, where the cormorant rookeries are, but there's still bass on the island's biggest lake-Lake Geneserath. The Michigan Outdoor Writers Association was catching some of those bass the first weekend in June. 

And the feds are now present in that area, working all of this past spring on Hat Island and surrounding areas. Rolling eggs, I know for sure, but I believe they were actually killing adult birds, too. 

Eric was flown over the rookeries this spring. He should have been out there years ago. Beaver gets forgotten all the time, and that's a shame, it's truly an island paradise in the middle of Lake Michigan.


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## USST164 (May 6, 2008)

Gordon Lightfoot from the Wreck of Edmund Fitzgerald.


Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams,
The islands and bays are for sportsmen.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99rOzMVtcx4


Now it's the Wreck of the uncaring trained professional bureaucrats .

When spokespeople for the DNR make statements that the Cormorants just eat the gobies , you have to ask are those statements a deliberate act of stupidity , or a plan strategy by idiots.


Any citizen putting toxic material at the water's edge, resulting in the killing of vegetation , would find themselves in jail.

But with the cormorants. It's just a yawner.

Where's the outrage from the local Chambers of Commerce.. ??


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## Linda G. (Mar 28, 2002)

The executive director of the Beaver Island C of C, and his entire board, have plenty to say, as does the local newspaper, the Northern Islander. But no one listens...after all, they're way out in the middle of the lake.


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## USST164 (May 6, 2008)

Linda G. said:


> The executive director of the Beaver Island C of C, and his entire board, have plenty to say, as does the local newspaper, the Northern Islander. But no one listens...after all, they're way out in the middle of the lake.


The first time I saw that local paper was this week. Who ever put that paper on line like that is a genius , I can't remember seeing a paper look so good to the eyes. Crisp , clean , even with the local ads. Much better then small print with a thousand different links.


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## USST164 (May 6, 2008)

Here's another Freepress story from about a month ago. They knew for 5 years that the fish being released into Thunder Bay were just Cormorant food. How can you have a Brown Trout festival and tournament without the fish.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008805040578

I wonder what Tom Washington would say about the " Good Old Days " today.


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## USST164 (May 6, 2008)

The Cormorants have friends in the Thunder Bay area.

http://www.mecprotects.org/MER/07spring/cormorants.html

Looks like the research is in , time to liquidate the documented pest.

By the way , there is documentation that cormorants can dive to 60 feet and more. You have to wonder why the above link just gives you the HALF truth...Why are they hiding the facts from the public. ???

I see they don't address the devastation caused by these birds to the environment , or the effects those birds have on other protected species.

They also don't mention the effects on the local economy either.

That shows their true colors.


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## USST164 (May 6, 2008)

Some of the most severely hit areas in Michigan by the cormorants all happen to be in one congressman's district. The Thunder Bay area , the Beaver Island area , the Cedarville and Hessel area , Drumond Island and don't leave off the $80 million damage to the Mackinac Bridge. All in Bart Stupak District , he just wakes up to the issue during an election year. ??

http://www.house.gov/stupak/initiatives_protectingour_greatlakes.shtml

The only good part is Bart mentions the DNR has come to the conclusion that the cormorants are eating the yellow perch.

Here's two independent links that state the cormorants are eating a lot more than just the gobies.

http://www.glsc.usgs.gov/_files/reports/2007DietLittleGalloIsland.pdf


http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/STEL02_196676.pdf


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## USST164 (May 6, 2008)

In just over a decade .

http://www.glsc.usgs.gov/_files/reports/2007EggLittleGalooIsland.pdf


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## USST164 (May 6, 2008)

Who ever thinks Cormorants aren't eating perch , this study from the federal government says of the 1.38 million panfish eaten , 1.20 million were perch. see pape # 3 section 16.

Thats NOT pounds , thats the number of fish... WOW

http://www.glsc.usgs.gov/_files/reports/2007DietPigeon.pdf

The ones that still say Cormorants just eat gobies are insane or on drugs... Yeah thats what it is Reef-er.


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## Jelf (Apr 7, 2008)

Yikes!!!! I own waterfront on Beaver Island that I am trying to sell.


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