I know that cormorants are indigenous to the UK and I know they have always visited inland lakes.
But never to the extent that they are now.
Yes, the root of the problem lies in depleted sea fish stocks. But that doesn't make a fishery owner (and the anglers who fish it) feel any better when he sees cormorants scoffing his stock.
And yes, the answer, long term, is to sort out the sea fish stocks so that cormorants have no reason to pillage inland lakes to the extent that they are now.
My comments are not so much anti-cormorant, as pro-fish. I am a wildlife lover of all types and species, but don't like it when one species is causing damage to the ecology of another, particularly where the victims have no chance. I have seen the devastation caused on the Ribble by these birds, where we now have very few young fish coming through to replace the big fish we are at present catching prior to the foot and mouth epidemic.
And my comments in no way are meant to be taken that I am in favour of killing cormorants.
My motive is to protect fish.