Cormorant Update: June 17

Here's the latest on the cormorant situation from a member of the Leech Lake Association. Congratulations to all involved.

"As of yesterday they have taken 2,743 Cormorants. That's about it for theyear as the nesting is over and they are not congregating anymore. The Terns are also nesting. They will continue to take about 20 Cormorants per week by pass shooting with shotguns for the continuing diet studies. They take them with shotguns on the way back from feeding for the diet studies. This will continue most of the summer. The "shooters" are expert marksmen from the U.S. Wildlife Service. Neither the Tribe nor the DNR have done any shooting and all of the shooting has been done with Air Rifles (CO 2). No one, the Tribe or the Wildlife Service have been using silencer equipped rifles. The Minnesota legislature has not yet finished the bill allowing ANYONE to use silencer equipped rifles. I understand the bill was passed by both houses but had to go back to committee for some wording changes and then the Governor will sign it into law. We will be able to use silencer equipped 22's next year, if needed.

My feelings are that the DNR, Tribal DRM and theWildlife Service did a great job considering the handicap they were under having to use air rifles. The air rifles only have a 30 yard effective range while the silencer equipped 22's double that. We had only about 1,800 nesting pairs return this year as opposed to 2,500 last year probably due to some of the habitat destruction the Tribe did. If you consider that 2,743 were killed, plus about 2 birds not hatched per empty nest, we probably reduced the population by 4,000-5,000 birds. That's a big dent, and we are not seeing as many, or as sizable flocks, this year. At least over here. What we are seeing are lots of Pelicans and Gulls, but they aren't having as much luck without the Cormorants to scare the fish up for them."