CORMORANT CULL

[Baz]

On Cormorants.
I am off work this week so I had a walk around a couple of my club waters today.
I got talking to a chap who was doing a spot of photography. He told me that there was a dead cormorant on another of my club waters and that an angler had probably killed it.
I asked him what made him think an angler had done it, and he replied that who else could it be?
I asked him if he was a member of my club, which he said he wasn't.
I then politely informed him that he was on private property and would he mind leaving?
These blokes make me laugh, they want to come walking all over our properties, photographing birds and the like, but they don't want us going onto their reserves and fishing in their waters. In fact they really pee me off.

 

[The Monk]

this is a good site to Baz

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/classification/Phalacrocoracidae.html

and yes I agree with you Baz, and I`m also an RSPB member

 

[Cliff Hatton]

If commercial fishermen had had the common sense not to totally strip the North Sea of just about everything, the cormorants wouldn't have found it necessary to come inland. I've just returned fron Switzerland (the very centre of Europe?) and the buggers are there in enormous quantities. I hate killing anything, but I've come to loathe these birds regardless of who is to blame for their plight. In the Lea Valley, gangs of 100+ cormorants 'round-up' and corner the roach then gorge themselves silly.
I recently discovered what can only be described as Redmire the Second...it looks fantastic and has NEVER been fished BUT...in seven trips, I haven't seen a single, solitary dimple from a little 'un - only a small handful of large carp survive; surprise, surprise, the place is infested with cormorants.

 

[Fred Bonney]

Michael,the Frigate Bird does not live around our waters.
The birds attacking Puffins are usually the Great Black Backed Gull.
I'm also a RSPB member and what's left of my wordly goods will currently be left to them.
Time for a will change, I think,Cancer Research sounds a better idea.

 

[The Monk]

probably a wiser move Fred, sadly there are those in the RSPB who would rather we didnt catch fish and thats putting it mildly, I`ve actually done talks on angling for my local RSPB group and a lot of it is purely down to ignorance

 

[Dave German]

Its interesting to hear the RSPB talk about culls, several years ago THey proposed a massive cull of magpies, for allegedly destroying the garden songbird population, it didnt get anywhere but it nearly tore them apart, the point is that their scientific evidence was very poor, but it was driven by the bleeding hearts "poor little songbirds" brigade, perhaps we could prove that the black ducks are pushing out herons, taking over nesting sites etc.

 

[The Monk]

The American Ruddy Duck has also had its problems, when will man learn, that nature does a pretty good job of looking after itself.

 

[Wolfman Woody]

Sound thinking about your last will etc., Fred. I'm a bit surprised that Monk favours your choice too. Thought he'd be more in favour of a home for retired ruffe slappers. )

Not all RSPB members think like that and despise us anglers. I met a member of the British Trust for Ornithology (?) last year who was also an RSPB member and he was strongly in favour of a massive cull of inland cormorants. They will eventually reduce the food availablility for other inland piscavores. What when there is a dramatic reduction in the number of kingfishers, one of the biggest turn-ons for any birdwatcher?

 

[Cliff Hatton]

Now there's a paradox....our rivers and lakes are virtually devoid of all the smaller species we used to have and yet I've never seen so many kingfishers! They're everywhere, including town centres. I can't remember when I last fished and didn't see a kingy or four.

 

[Steve Spiller]

On BBC Newsround last night they said one cormorant eats UP TO 1kg of fish per WEEK!
What a load of pants! They have to get the facts right before making comments like that.
I've seen cormorants taking 12oz roach, then going back down for more!

 

[Cliff Hatton]

Haven't we all, Dog Biscuit (did I really just address someone as Dog Biscuit?)
On Abberton many years ago, I watched for 15 minutes or so a cormorant struggling to get an eel of around 3lb down its gullet. When the last bit finally went in, the bird's neck squirmed and gyrated in the most hideous fashion! How must that feel in your stomach?!

 

[Michael Howson]

Fred. thanks for the nature lesson. However the point i was making remains that the (very powerful and single minded bird lobby)seem happy to concentrate their energies on objecting to anything whatsoever that entails even a minute cull of these obnoxious predators. What kind of people are they that cannot or more to the point will not see the obvious benefits to allmost all of our waterside wildlife i-e herons etc etc of a lessening of numbers to say nothing of the fish they consume in far greater amounts than they would have the largely naive public to believe.

 

[Cliff Hatton]

Hang on a mo'!
If man hadn't denuded the seas, the Black Death wouldn't be on our park lakes. Under the present circumstances I don't like the buggers either and would, in fact, cull them mercilessly. But never forget that Mother Nature (some might say God) never created anything without good reason. If we didn't have this man-made problem we'd be thrilled to see the 'rare' cormorant winging over the waves.
I lose sleep over Man's stupidity...the oceans - properly respected - could provide Mankind with food for evermore!! The Amazon, I'm sure, holds the key to all of our ills and diseases yet we (they) continue to raze it at an horrendous rate. It's all about self-restraint - on a global scale - but no, Man has to grab as much as he can as quickly as he can. It is my personal opinion that the deforestation of our planet is just cause for war...(following much negotiation!)

 

[Baz]

Ali Akabaarrr. Kill Kill.