Criticized cormorant

Natural systems work in mysterious ways. Often, we don’t understand how they work. Very often, we don’t like how they work. Case in point – the double-crested cormorant.

First of all, cormorants are not one of our more endearing- looking birds. In fact, they appear rather prehistoric. They always have a look about them as if they are up to no good – especially when they are standing around in a gang, which they usually do when resting. Cormorants are highly gregarious, you see.

Cormorants are fish predators and are usually thought of as sea birds. Out of six species of cormorants in North America, only the double-crested is comfortable as an inland-dweller in the United States and Canada – so they look out of place around here.

Out-of-place-looking, suspicious-looking, prehistoric-looking – cormorants don’t have a lot going for them in the Inland Northwest. In fact, double-crested cormorants have a long history of persecution wherever they are found. In the 1800s and early 1900s their populations declined due to killing and constant harassment.

Then, in the 1950s and 1960s, cormorants, along with other high-on-the-food-chain fish predators such as eagles and osprey, were about done in by DDT. Since its ban in 1972, double-crested cormorants have been doing quite well. There seems to be no shortage of nesting areas and potential feeding grounds are in abundance. These are the things any species needs to thrive.

So, life couldn’t seem to be better for cormorants these days. And that’s what’s getting them into trouble now. They are doing so well; they have become conspicuous, which makes them a target.

If you are a recreational fisherman and you are not doing so well, first blame management by your state Fish and Game Department. Elk hunters do it all the time. Still not doing so well, next blame predators you are forced to share the natural bounty with. Elk hunters do it all the time.

You see, cormorants are to fishermen and fish farms what coyotes, wolves and grizzly bears are to big game hunters and cattlemen. They are an ugly and convenient excuse for poor production, be it natural or agricultural. They are also opportunists, so if prey is abundant somewhere, cormorants will be there, forcing human-interests to share. We don’t like to share.

However, as are most birds, cormorants are now protected by the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act which makes it illegal to harass, capture or kill them without permission from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Cormorants are similarly protected in Canada. For most species, such permission is rarely granted. In fact, for most species, such permission is never granted.

From 1989 to 1993, Quebec authorized the extermination of 10,000 double-crested cormorants from islands of the St. Lawrence River. Cormorant nesting was destroying vegetation and making the islands unsuitable for other species that people apparently liked better.

In 1998, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a depredation order allowing the killing of cormorants, without first getting a federal permit, on certain islands in the Great Lakes and around aquaculture farms. In 1999 and 2000, eradication programs were proposed in New York and Vermont. In Oregon it is legal to harass them if you first get a permit.

So, who is this double-crested cormorant devil?

Well, cormorants are long-tailed, mostly-black birds with snakelike necks, hook-tipped bills and partially naked faces and chins of deep orange (other species have faces and chins of dull yellow, lemon yellow, red and bright blue). Oh, and by the way, John Milton, in “Paradise Lost,” described Satan as a cormorant sitting in the tree of life, “devising death.”

The name “cormorant” is derived from Latin for “raven of the sea.” Lots of people don’t like ravens, either. Double-crested cormorants are goose-sized and fly in gooselike formations, but they fly silently. And they have turquoise eyes.

Cormorants are a member of the pelican clan that includes the sea birds, boobies and gannets, and they are closely related to the anhinga of southern swamplands – the creepy-looking bird that’s typically seen with its wings stretched out to dry. Cormorant wings are frequently held out to dry, too.

Cormorants are totipalmate – all four of their toes are webbed together – and they have no nostrils – they must breathe through their mouths. They are good swimmers, propelling themselves through the water with their legs and totipalmate feet, and they fish by surface-diving, in a manner similar to loons and grebes. Unlike loons and grebes, cormorants spend most of their leisure time out of water.

Cormorants usually nest in colonies, but are not exclusive about where they put their nests. Nests are always untidy mounds of sticks, but they may be located in water-dead snags, on sea cliffs or on the ground on protected islands. As you might expect from such a bird, their colonies reek of guano and dead fish – both of which are also a major component of their nests.

Typically, despite the reputation of cormorants, feeding studies show that they eat mostly “trash” fish not found desirable by fishermen. This is certainly not the case, though, around fish farms, and it’s apparently not the case at the Columbia River estuary, the temporary yet critical resting area for millions of juvenile salmon and steelhead before they head out to sea.

These are the very salmon that federal and state governments are spending hundreds of millions of dollars trying to recover from the ravages of Columbia River dams and pollution.

Recently, double-crested cormorants have taken up nesting residence on an island near the estuary. In 1989 there were fewer than 100 nesting pairs of double-crested cormorants at the mouth of the Columbia River. This past season there were 14,000 pairs; one half of all West Coast double-crested cormorants. It’s now the largest cormorant colony in the world.

As you might guess, cormorants can be prolific breeders. Cormorant pairs often raise two or three young each year. This, combined with naturally low mortality rates, is what allows cormorant populations to take off, so to speak, when conditions are ideal. Conditions are apparently ideal at the mouth of the Columbia River.

Feeding studies of cormorants on the island, via the collection from cormorant guano of electronic tags that had been implanted in hatchery fish prior to their release into the river, have shown a loss to cormorant predation in the estuary of nearly 10 per cent of all salmon juveniles passing through Bonneville Dam.

There’s no question about it, like them or not, we can expect to be seeing a lot more of the double-crested cormorant in our area, too. According to Shirley Sturts, statistician for the Coeur d’Alene Audubon Society, double-crested cormorants were rare in Kootenai County just 15 years ago. In fact, between 1980 and 1999 there were only 12 reports of individual cormorants in the county.

During the Coeur d’Alene Christmas Bird Counts each December from 1991 to 2000, no cormorants were seen. Then, in 2001, five were recorded. There were eight the next year, 17 and 18 the next two years, and 32 and 38 the last two years. Active cormorant nests have been found along the lake in three of the last five seasons.

Now, a Kootenai County birder or fisherman can expect to see cormorants around the lake year-round – and many people are not happy about it.

Still, I can’t help but wonder if this badly maligned species would be getting a better reception, even if all its habits were the same, if only it was better looking.