Just seen the ad where an old Chinese guy on a boat uses a tethered Cormoraunt to boat fish for him,whilst aware of this method of fishing I was staggered to sees the stamp of Carp this hook billed bird could catch ....
I was in London yesterday at Canary Warf and was amazed to see so many cormorants in almost every 'dock' - mostly they were sat sunning themselves on the little wooden floats moored in the docks.
In one there were about 15 of the damn things who were periodically diving for small fish.
I was quite surprised to see them so close to the City and seemingly totally oblivious to their surroundings - they almost looked 'tame' to me.
On the recent TV prgramme Fish - A Japanese Obsession, they featured the Royal Cormorant Master night fishing from a boat. He had 12 cormorants, each one on a lead. Each one would dive down and bring him a fish. The birds had some kind of rubber ring fitted round their necks to stop them swallowing. The guy said that each bird brings on average 60 fish per hour. What was amazing was the way he orchestrated the whole thing without getting an tangles.
Saw a similar program myself but it was about an old Chinese guy just like the advert guy. Half a dozen birds and pulling out large Carp or Ide looking fish about 2-4lbs with great regularity.
I have a vast lake on my doorstep owned by colleges in Oxford and there are two islands one of which has always been an 'heronry'. It's had a few Cormorants on it for a few years but this year it's black with them. That is for the bank below the branches which is pure white from all their shite. It seems to burn away or destroy all foliage too.
Now if their numbers have grown so large they must be eating something. This lake has a very low density of fish so they're not eating there. But they are right beside the Linear Fisheries Guys lakes syndicate waters!
i was fishing last week at New House Farm Pond in Stockport and i watched a cormarant pluck out a skimmer bream of about 2lbs. it took it up the bank and started jabbing the fish hard, i could almost feel the vibrations. It then picked it up but the skimmer was too wide for it to swallow. It tried swallowing it for about 10mins then gave up, went back into the water and plucked out another fish which looked like a roach of around a pound.