Stuart,
I should have made the "doing naturally" comment clearer. Cormorants have come onto freshwater fisheries because greedy, short sighted fishermen have been allowed to damn nearly empty the north sea by politicians too spineless to take appropriate corrective action. The cormorants will do what they have to do in order to survive i.e. move inland. Plain and simple, doing what comes naturally.
I can understand the frustrations of angler's whose fisheries have been decimated by cormorants, indeed one of my own waters has been impacted. However, the cull is not IMO going to have a significant long term remedial impact on the problem. Too few birds to be killed, culled birds will be replaced by new arrivals from Europe and the coasts, constant effort cormorant vigilance will be required at fisheries over an extended period to be effective at the local level. And last but not least it paints anglers in an exremely poor light.
Personally I don't particularly like cormorants and certainly don't regard them as sweet. But I do respect them in exactly the same way as I respect any other creature (apart from mossies!). They are the victims of man's arrogance and ignorance.
So apart from the fact that I think the cull is basically a waste of time as it does nothing to address the real problem, I see its public celebration as making a bad situation worse. As fishing comes under more pressure from the antis in years to come, comments like yours will be used against us to swing public opinion their way. Not to mention the birdwatchers' reaction to your comments. Let's not make it any easier for them please.
)