# Cormorants: unwelcomed visitors



## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

Cormorants: unwelcomed visitors 

http://www.ludingtondailynews.com/news.php?story_id=27215

By BRIAN MULHERIN, Daily News Staff Writer, Posted: 5-4-2005
[email protected], 231-843-1122, ext. 348

Just as the Lake Michigan fishing season is getting under way, another season is here  the bird migration season. 

But no visitor has been less welcome in the tourist towns along Lake Michigan in recent years than the double-crested cormorant. The birds began arriving en masse over the weekend after a month of just a few birds being present.

According to biologists, double-crested cormorants are among the most efficient marine predators on the lake. They fly in huge flocks and corral schools of fish and can each eat a pound to a pound and a quarter of fish each day. They dive regularly to depths of 30 feet and have been found to eat everything from whitefish to alewives to perch and smallmouth bass.

A variety of sources have blamed them for decimating Great Lakes brown trout plantings, for a lack of perch in Lake Michigan and a lack of smallmouth bass in other places. With Lake Hurons alewife population crashing in recent years, many biologists have wondered out loud about the impacts cormorants are having on baitfish populations in the Great Lakes.

According to Chuck Pistis of the Michigan State University Extension Sea Grant, Canadian researchers are throwing around some big numbers when it comes to the fish that cormorants eat.

I think some credible research is being developed that really links their impacts with our fish populations. Theres compelling evidence coming out of Canada  a guy named (John) Casselman has done some research on Lake Ontario and he says they may be consuming a substantial portion of the prey fish on Lake Ontario. He says avian predators are now consuming 44 percent of potential production and 76 percent of optimal yield for prey fish.

Pistis noted the research is primarily for near-shore areas, where cormorants can see fish to feed on from the air.

Maybe its not the major consumer of prey fish, but it really does need to be addressed, Pistis said.

Tom Rozich, a fisheries biologist with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources who sits on the states cormorant task force said 2005 will be a status-quo year, meaning only USDA Wildlife Services studies will be performed in the state. Those lethal-control studies are primarily focused on the Les Cheneaux Islands near the straits of Mackinaw.

He said he hopes to inventory colonies of the birds, especially the one on the reefs at the Ludington Pumped Storage Plant, in the near future.

What were looking at doing is hopefully in 2006, is expanding the program that USDA Wildlife Services are doing, Rozich said. This year there will be no new control areas.

Rozich asked hatchery staff to plant Great Lakes fish as early as possible in the season so as to avoid predation by cormorants. Ludingtons brown trout plant arrived two weeks ago. Although a couple cormorants were observed several hundred yards away, they did not seem to flock to the fish as in past years.

Rozich, a Great Lakes fisherman himself, said he saw large flocks over the weekend near Onekama.

They were mostly migrating through, he said. We did see a flock that set in right around where we marked bait on the fish finder. I would say 95 percent of what we saw was migrating through.

Doug Strzynski said the migration has really been in high gear since the weekend.

I know they havent been bad until the last three or four days and boy, oh boy, I think theres more birds this year than there were last year, Strzynski said. I dont know where theyre coming from.

Strzynski said hes observed many birds flying south instead of north to feed over the last few days. He said hes not sure whether theyre flying to Bass Lake or Pentwater Lake from the plant, but they seem to return after a few hours. 

He puts the bird population around the project in the hundreds at the moment.

Youll see flocks of 40 to 50 go by, he said. This morning there were probably four of them in a row like that.

Rozich said this week hes also been getting calls from inland lakes. Strangely enough, all the lakes where complaints were fielded from host smelt populations.

I would suspect that there is a correlation, he said.

If you see a large flock of cormorants, it is illegal to harass them in any way. Its also illegal to kill them.

The feds will prosecute you and the penalties are very, very severe, Rozich said. I would ask people not to take the law into their own hands and just be patient.


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## deputy865 (Feb 7, 2004)

Didnt know what they looked like so i did a google search. Man this is the second thread i've read about these things. If i'm not mistaken the other one stated that they were in a in-land lake.. Hope this dousnt happen around me. How does the DNR take care of this or how does anyone take care of this.. or do they just let it go... What do they do exactically?

Shane


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## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

Cormorants take a legal hit 
Birds destroyed in hopes of reviving fish 

Aerial surveys at the Les Cheneaux Islands in northern Lake Huron last summer found less foraging pressure by cormorants, the black, goose-sized diving birds that each eat a pound of fish a day. 
The decrease followed an experiment by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the state Department of Natural Resources to reduce cormorant numbers in selected areas. Some adult birds were killed, and thousands of eggs in nests were oiled to prevent them from hatching.

http://www.freep.com/sports/outdoors/cormorants5e_20050505.htm


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## ted stehney (Jun 1, 2004)

Hey Hamilton Reef. Thanks for the report. I read an article on Walleye central the other day as to what they are doing in Minnesota about this problem. Michigan had better change the "status quo" or all of our fishing tourism $$ will be headed else where. Hope things are thawing in Montague. I hope to make it over your way to catch a few Lake Michigan perch this spring.


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## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

LACA offers help for cormorant control

http://www.ludingtondailynews.com/news.php?story_id=33336

10-12-2006 By BRIAN MULHERIN Daily News Staff Writer
[email protected] 843-1122, ext. 348

The Ludington Area Charterboat Association is putting its money where its mouth is when it comes to cormorant control. 

LACA President Jim Fenner visited the Lansing office of USDA Wildlife Services last week to present State Director Pete Butchko with a check for $3,500 earmarked for cormorant control.

For a long time, weve been looking for a project to give money to that would be helpful to our fishery, Fenner said. We all feel that these cormorants are taking a lot of our bait and our brown trout. 

Although LACAs donation was not the first, it was the largest donation to the project received to date. 

Various groups in the state have grouped together to provide funds to help the USDA set up programs to control cormorants in Michigan, Fenner said. We feel this is an appropriate use of our special projects fund. We know that the USDA has been here and surveyed the rocks and found that there is a problem and were hopeful that sometime soon the USDA will find time to come up and mitigate the cormorant situation in Ludington. Were giving the funds without condition, other than it be cormorant control in Michigan. 

Butchko said he appreciates the charterboat associations support. 

The arrangement we struck, and they were very agreeable to this, they wanted to support our activities, Butchko said. Its best if we can have the latitude to decide wheres the best place to do it. It would be a little cumbersome to try to designate certain funds for certain areas and not for other areas. Were very appreciative, this is very encouraging. 

Wildlife Services has been working to control cormorant numbers in the Les Cheneaux Islands of Lake Huron for three years now and just this year started a control project in Thunder Bay near Alpena. 

Thunder Bay, that was strictly shooting adult birds, Butchko said. In other locations, we oil eggs, but in Thunder Bay we were not given permission to do that by the people that own the islands where the cormorants were nesting. 

The goal was (to eliminate) one third of the adult birds, Butchko said. We came pretty close to meeting our goal. I would say that were successful in meeting our goal. 

There are other areas of the state where Wildlife Services simply carries out harassment of the birds to protect certain fish stocks. 

The group harasses birds at two different times of the year, Butchko said. 

One of those is during the nesting season, but also earlier in the season  in late April, early May, when the cormorants are migrating through Michigan in kind of a large pulse, Butchko said. This often occurs at the same time when fish are spawning, namely perch and walleye. 

We put together a program that includes a lot of harassment  shooting  to reduce pressure cormorants put on fish populations. 

The first donation to Wildlife Services arrived about three weeks earlier than Ludingtons, even though LACA voted the funds in May. The Flint River Valley Steelheaders donated $2,200 for cormorant control. 

Butchko said decisions for next years control projects will be made late this year or early in 2007. He couldnt yet say whether Ludington would be a recipient of controls, but its definitely on the radar after a survey by the DNR and Wildlife Services found roughly 500 nests on the reef off the Ludington Pumped Storage Plant. 

This is the first time that was officially identified as a cormorant nesting colony, which was probably a little surprising to a lot of people, Butchko said. For some reason it kind of slipped below the radar screen of agencies that count cormorants. 

Butchko said the DNR Fisheries Division has been vocal about the colony. 

Fisheries Biologist Tom Rozich said after the survey that the colony was an unnatural situation. 

Currently there is no single Web site or agency that lists all of the cormorant control efforts in the state. But Butchko said he has been approached by the Thumb-area Sea Grant representative about compiling just such a Web site. 

They were very interested in helping out with putting together a Web site where people can find out whats going on, whos doing what, what the rules are and what the regulations are, Butchko said.


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## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

Ludington - Cormorants in the crosshairs in 2007? Well 

http://www.ludingtondailynews.com/news.php?story_id=34420

1-4-2007 By BRIAN MULHERIN Daily News Staff Writer 

Will the cormorants that nest on the reefs off Ludingtons Pumped Storage Plant be one of the colonies that receives control efforts in 2007? 

Maybe. 

That was Pete Butchkos answer.

Butchko, director of USDA Wildlife Services for Michigan, will speak about progress being made in controlling double-crested cormorants in Michigan Saturday at Ramada Inn as part of Sea Grant Michigans Regional Fishery Workshop. 

It is going to be a place that is under consideration, Butchko said of the Ludington site. The process is under way. This is sort of a joint process weve done in the past with the DNR, both the Wildlife Division and the Fisheries Divisions. 

Im not a fisheries guy, so Im forced to rely on fisheries biologists to understand what are the potential impacts (of cormorants at a given site). Ludington will be on the table with some other places, and we probably wont be able to hit all the places that would like controls. 

Although most of the control efforts to date have been in Lake Huron, Butchko will outline projects in Lake Michigan people might not know about. 

We did do two projects in Lake Michigan (in 2006)  this was the first year for both of them, Butchko said. The first was in Bay De Noc, that was for protection of the fishery. The second was on South Manitou Island, where theyre having negative impacts on vegetation. 

Butchko said the primary project and most visible sign of success may be the Les Cheneaux Islands in Lake Huron.

Weve been working there three years. Were seeing some very, very nice results in the yellow perch fishery, Butchko said. We cant take all the credit for that. Its hard to say how much we can take. There are quite a bit fewer cormorants, and perch fishing seems to be quite a bit better.

Butchko will outline just how much better the fishing is in the Les Cheneaux Islands and discuss other sites and candidate sites. 

But right now, Butchkos hands are tied. 

Congress hasnt passed our appropriations for fiscal year 2007, he said. Thats going to have to get cleared up. I think its going to get cleared up here in the next several months. At the same time, were having our discussions with the fisheries and wildlife folks. 

He said the decisions on which sites get control efforts, which can include oiling eggs and shooting live birds, should be made by March or April. 

Certainly by March we need to be pretty close to that decision, Butchko said. 

Another person in on the cormorant control decision-making is Michigan Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Biologist Supervisor Tom Rozich. Rozich will speak on several issues affecting central Lake Michigan, including brown trout plants, and is expecting to address the proposed license fee increases. 

Also with the DNR and on the agenda are Fisheries Hatcheries Manager Gary Whelan, who will discuss viral hemorrhagic septicemia and Donna Wessander of the Charlevoix Research Station, who will discuss electronic charterboat reporting. 

Other speakers on the agenda include Jeff Slade of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services Ludington Station, Dennis Donahue of the NOAA Lake Michigan Field Station and Archie Martell of the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians Conservation Department. 

Chuck Pistis of Michigan Sea Grant, who was recently named the state director of the Michigan State University Extension, will serve as the master of ceremonies for the day. 

The doors open at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, with the first speaker scheduled for 9 a.m. The entry fee of $18 at the door includes lunch.


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## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

Preliminary data suggest cormorant control works

http://www.ludingtondailynews.com/news.php?story_id=34484

1-8-2007 By JOE BOOMGAARD Daily News Staff Writer
[email protected] 843-1122, ext. 309

Pete Butchko is a cormorants worst enemy. 

The director of USDA wildlife services in Michigan manages cormorant control measures in the state, measures which include both harassment and killing of the birds. Many anglers and biologists in the state suspect cormorants are negatively affecting fish populations throughout the Great Lakes basin.

Butchko, speaking as part of the Sea Grant Michigan Fishery Workshop Saturday, outlined the history of the double-breasted cormorant population and the progress his agency has made in controlling the bird, which he said have expanded 1,000-fold since the 1970s. 

A project for cormorant control measures at the Ludington Pumped Storage Plant is in the works between the Michigan DNR and the USDA, but relies on funding, Butchko said. 

The DNRs Lake Michigan Management Unit Fisheries Supervisor Tom Rozich said he was sure the (Lake Michigan) basin team will move forward with cormorant control in Ludington this year. Rozich and Butchkos staffers inventoried the nesting site last summer. 

More people want control than we can provide.  Ludington may be one of those places, Butchko said. 

The USDA, with the help of local partners, has several projects throughout the state that aim to keep the cormorant population in check in places where it is believed that the sport fisheries have suffered because of heavy predation by cormorants. 

The measures, he said, take a combined lethal and harassing approach. One project in the Les Cheneaux Islands in northern Lake Huron has combined oiling the eggs of ground-nesting cormorants with limited shooting. At the site in 2006, Butchko said hes seen a 56 percent reduction in the nesting population of cormorants since 2002. 

In that time, evidence has shown some positive fisheries changes, although some of the predictions might be premature, he said. 

We dont want to declare victory too soon, Butchko said. 

The Michigan legislature promised $150,000 to help cormorant control efforts statewide if the federal government matches the funds.

In all, 5,400 of the more than 67,000 cormorants were killed last year, according to Butchkos data. That program and the non-lethal programs were made possible by $200,000 in federal funding, he said.


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## cliffd (Jun 25, 2006)

I hope they make regular progress and dispatch that success all over the state. We have SERIOUS problems on Lake Huron in the Tawases with cormorants. They nest on Charity Island(s) and I have counted them in the hundreds around the crib at Alabaster.


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## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

Cormorant droppings harm Mackinac Bridge

MACKINAW CITY - Pigeon and sea gull droppings have been eating away at the paint on the Mackinac Bridge for years and now double-crested cormorant poo can be added to the noxious mix, says the Mackinac Bridge Authority's chief engineer. We don't want them there, said Kim Nowack, who is looking for new ways to shoo the birds away. The cormorants are the latest threat to the bridge. The bird droppings corrode the steel, and make maintenance harder by soaking up moisture and putting it against the steel.

http://www.petoskeynews.com/articles/2007/01/17/news/local_regional/news1.txt


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## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

CEDARVILLE Perch on upswing as birds decline

CEDARVILLE -- The once-famous perch fishing around Les Cheneaux Islands has come back strong, locals say.

Federal and state biologists cautiously agree that the reason is three seasons of killing cormorants -- the big, black diving birds that feasted on perch -- and oiling cormorant eggs to prevent them from hatching.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070128/SPORTS10/701280633/1058


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## 22 Chuck (Feb 2, 2006)

Back in Oct I heard a gentleman fron the Dept Agriculture tlak about the control efforts in the Las Cheneaux area. I guess you could apply to volunteer to shoot them. Shooting is a method that is used in very specific circumstances. Oiling eggs is the most widely practiced method.


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## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

Cormorant control nixed in Senate budget

http://www.ludingtondailynews.com/news.php?story_id=35516

3-27-2007 JOE BOOMGAARD - DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

The budget bill passed by the State Senate to fix the current fiscal year budget shortfall included a $839,400 cut to the Department of Natural Resources, included in which was $150,000 for cormorant control measures at the Ludington Pumped Storage Plant and at Beaver Island.

That means no cormorant control if it passes, said Tom Rozich, fisheries biologist supervisor, noting his frustration with the cut after finally securing the funding after years of repeated requests. 

Im sure theres a lot more pork in the budget and that aint pork. Its our brown trout fishery; thats our lake trout spawners, Rozich said. 

The Michigan legislature promised $150,000 to help cormorant control efforts statewide if the federal government matched the funds. 

Jeff Cobb, legislative aide for Sen. Gerald Van Woerkom, R-Norton Shores, said Van Woerkom believes in cormorant control, but many new programs were the first to be axed. 

The new programs were the first ones on the chopping block, Cobb said. If we get things get turned around again, its a program wed like to see start up. There were many we felt were good programs, but they were new and they (felt they could cut them). 

The bill must still be taken up by the House and signed by the governor to become law.

Were a long way off from any real conclusion on this, Cobb said. The idea behind us passing the budget was to get the conversation started that you can balance it by cutting.


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## osoma yo mama (Feb 10, 2007)

well the if the bill dosnt pass we can allways bust out the twelve gauge. im not a pocher but this is a hole different ball game. i see one of them damn things on one of my trips ill at least be heaving rocks.


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## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

Sen. Gerald Van Woerkom is happy to screw the DNR and natural resources any chance he gets. In West Michigan he is well known as a liar-to-your-face corrupt politician. Keep in mind that Sen. Gerald Van Woerkom is also the same cow poop CAFO supporter, he has told the Muskegon & White River watersheds he supports Nestle Ice Mountain. The welfare of the fishery means nothing to him. Sen. Gerald Van Woerkom supports the cormorants, screw you.


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## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

Ludington - Predatory birds eggs oiled
State, federal agencies hope to preserve fish populations

http://www.ludingtondailynews.com/news.php?story_id=35976

05/03/07 BRIAN MULHERIN - DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
[email protected] 843-1122, ext. 348

PERE MARQUETTE TWP.  Federal employees treated hundreds of cormorant eggs with vegetable oil Wednesday at the rock breakwater off the Ludington Pumped Storage Plant. The oil will keep the eggs from hatching.

The action was a joint effort between state and federal agencies that were hoping to protect not just stocked brown trout in Lake Michigan and surrounding rivermouth lakes, but also great lakes forage species such as alewife and smelt. 

This is a good first step, said Tom Rozich, Michigan Department of Natural Resources fisheries biologist supervisor. There is no reason we need to feed tens of thousands of pounds of alewives to cormorants. They are better suited as forage for all of our gamefish. This control will serve to protect the brown trout we stock in Ludington harbor. 

Itll protect the long-term recovery of perch thats going on in Lake Michigan. 

Jim Fenner, president of the Ludington Area Charterboat Association, said he was pleased to hear about the cormorant control measures. 

Thats great, Fenner said. I love it. Were all for it. This is what weve been hoping for. 

Hopefully this is the beginning of the end of the cormorant colony in Ludington and it should signal the beginning of the return of the perch fishery. 

Fenners group gave $3,500 to USDA Wildlife Services for cormorant control in Michigan last year. 

By making that contribution we made the USDA aware that we were serious and we knew we had a problem here, Fenner said. They looked into it last summer and they thought it was worth doing. 

A survey last summer revealed 482 nests in the colony. Pete Butchko of the U.S. Department of Agricultures Wildlife Services said the number was reduced slightly when crews visited Wednesday, probably because its so early in the year. He said he hoped to have crews return every two weeks, which is standard protocol for controlling reproduction.

Butchko said he also hopes to eliminate 10 percent of the population of the colony  200 of the roughly 2,000 birds. Federal officials plan to use guns to shoot and kill the birds. There are currently no plans to eliminate the colony. 

But the hurdle for Butchkos plans is funding. He expects $150,000 from the federal government, an amount planned for the project since 2004, but not yet received. The delay in his federal funding is tying up state matching funds. 

In the meantime, cormorants are nesting and we cant wait, Butchko said. Were getting started with some of our activities. 

He said his budget could be anywhere from $150,000 to $310,000, but he doesnt know how much it will be. 

I think well have enough to do some things, Butchko said. We may not have enough to do everything. Weve added a fairly major project in the Beaver islands this year. Weve added Ludington, which is small by comparison, but it does take people and it does take hours for them to do that.


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## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

Efforts to control cormorant populations seem to be working

http://www.mlive.com/outdoors/statewide/index.ssf?/base/sports-1/118047840373400.xml&coll=1

06/02/07 By Bob Gwizdz

Wildlife officials seem to be making progress controlling populations of double-crested cormorants in Michigan. 

Populations of the large, fish-eating birds that have been blamed for a decline in a number of sport fisheries, are down in most of Michigan's Great Lakes areas, according to nesting surveys. 

The surveys, taken in 1997 and 2003, showed cormorant nests were eliminated on Lake Erie, falling from 397 in 1997 to none in 2003. The number of nests observed on Lake Superior fell by more than half, from 1,633 to 768.

But, intervention by federal wildlife control officers has been less successful on both the St. Marys River (where nests fell from 599 to 549) and Lake Huron (8,541 to 7,156) and the number of nests on Lake Michigan actually increased -- from 19,288 to 25,200. 

Cormorants are thought to have increased above historic levels in the Great Lakes in recent years because of a number of factors. Among the reasons are reduced environmental toxins (such as DDT) that had caused reproductive failure, increased food sources in the Great Lakes and increased wintering food supplies in the South because of aquaculture. 

Authorities with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, state fish and wildlife management agencies and the tribes can take action against cormorants that are depleting resources. The Department of Natural Resources fisheries and wildlife divisions are part of a group that includes the USDA, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and three tribal organizations coordinating efforts against cormorants. 

During 2006, the group attempted to take half the adult birds from the Les Cheneaux Islands and oil the eggs (so they won't hatch) of half the nests, take a third of the adult birds and oil eggs at four rookeries (a colony of nests) in Thunder Bay. The group also tried to take a third of adults and oil nests at two rookeries on the Bays de Noc and take 25 percent of nesting birds at South Manitou Island. The effort resulted in 5,627 cormorants being destroyed in Michigan. 

Among the Great Lakes region states, only Ohio destroyed more cormorants (5,873). 

Over the last three years, 35,414 birds have been taken and another 68,085 nests have been destroyed. 

In addition, birds were harassed at Drummond Island, Brevort Lake, Long Lake, Grand Lake, Rockport, Big Manistique Lake, South Manistique Lake and Indian Lake. 

This year, the group plans to continue the 2006 projects and initiate new projects at Beaver Island and the Ludington Pump Storage Station, and begin a harassment effort on the Lower Au Sable and Thunder Bay rivers. 

Meanwhile, a bill recently passed committee in the Michigan Senate instructing the DNR to pursue money from the Great Lakes Protection Fund to step up cormorant control efforts.


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## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

Part 1of2

Are cormorants ruining fishing?
BEAVER ISLAND -- The once-renowned bass and perch fisheries here are just a memory, gobbled up by tens of thousands of big, black diving birds that can eat more than their own weight in fish in a week.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080615/SPORTS10/806150597/1058

Part 2of2

Birds could be health hazard
LUDINGTON -- Richard Underwood of Ludington, a retired charter boat captain, said he believes the population explosion of double-crested cormorants on the Great Lakes has not just decimated sport fish populations, it also represents a health hazard.
A few years ago, Underwood noticed that when Lake Michigan beaches near this tourist town were closed by high concentrations of E. coli bacteria, it usually happened two or three days after rain."We have 2,000 cormorants nesting on a breakwater that sits offshore about three miles south of Ludington Beach," he said. "When it rained, it washed the cormorant (feces) off the rocks and into the water. If the wind was from the north, two or three days later they'd find high levels of E. coli at the beaches south of the breakwater. If the wind was from the south, they'd close beaches north of the breakwater."
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080622/SPORTS10/806220651/1058


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## Gina Fox (Nov 4, 2007)

Back in 1985 I did a boat trip to the North Channel and Georgian Bay...(great trip to do) while up there we found perch by the schools in crystal clear water that would bite on ANYTHING...13 years later we went back to the area and there were NO perch to be found. The Cormorants decimated the populations. They are protected (?) however, I had it on good athority that locals 'took matters into their own hands' to control the population. I forget whey they were originally introduced by the government to the area...just another example how species not native to our area can have a negative impact. We have a place in Northern Michigan 1/2 hr. from Traverse City, on a small inland lake and I have seen them...our dogs send them packing.

If you remember the story (grade school) about the chinese boy that had the duck that dove for fish...same bird...lol


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