Don't Blame The Cormorant

[Wildfisher]

Great article in Nov. FF+FT by Dr. Malcolm Greenhaulgh.

Worth a read.

[Wildfisher]

Aint got it yet , but i will take a guess that its blaming either over fishing at sea or rainbow waters for wooing them from the coast? am  i close?

Stocking with rainbows. The conclusions are based on chronological evidence and are rather convincing. There has to be something in this. Basically the rise in inland cormorants correlates with the rise in commercial rainbow fisheries.

[Wildfisher]

Can't see stocking changing on small fisheries. – there would be no fish in them!  I do believe that the way forward for natural lochs and rivers is no stocking, more strict limits and c+r.  As Stan Headley says – the way it works in Scotland seems to  be that  if there is a problem then we throw fish at it. This has to change.

[Wildfisher]

you would be allowed to shoot a fox if it was eating your chickens so personally i cant see the difference

There's a big difference Dod

Chickens are birds and  birds  are conservation

Nothing else is -  ask Bill Oddie 

[Pearly Invicta]

I saw 2 cormorants on the river gaur last year gorging on all the wee troot. That's a long way from the nearest rainbow fishery and a fair old distance from the sea. As with most things I think there are a variety of factors at play- depletion of food stocks in the sea, easy pickings from fisheries changing bird behaviour and the natural tendency of beasties to roam about and make best use of the feeding opportunities. I'm pretty sure the odd cormorant has always strayed in land on occasion- but the gamekeepers of the past would just have shot them and nobody would have bothered their arse.

[Wildfisher]

To be honest I can't remember the last time I saw a cormorant fishing on an inland water. Not saying  they don't, but I fish around a fair bit and if it's that big a problem you might think I would have seen the odd one. I don't tend to fish  stocked waters though.

[Wildfisher]

There was a bit about the Dolphins up at Moray and they were hammering salmon, really going at them.  Funny how the 'kill anything that attacks our salmon' brigade haven't mentioned it.  A step too far I

Give them a chance.

[Wildfisher]

I guess the bird people might argue that back in the old days when cormorants were shot on sight and seals were slaughtered this upset the balance and perhaps the rivers and lochs held artificially high numbers of fish. Certainly nature has ways of restoring balance – back when our rivers were solid with salmon (even I can remember that) along came funricosis and  UDN and thinned them out. Not good for the Willie Gunns of this world but perhaps a bit closer to natural numbers? The numbers of most species, like the weather,  tends to by cyclical. It only gets screwed up when we interfere with it. Perhaps now we are on the part of the cycle where predator numbers have increased to take up the slack, if so then it will self correct in the years ahead. As far as Leven goes we have to accept that there is just no way we are going to be allowed to cull anything just to improve the prospects for our hobby. Yes Leven was always stocked to some extent and it always had cormorants to some extent. That kind of re-enforces  Malcomlm Greenhaulgh's  point. Leven's problems have more to do with human activity  than birds. According to Headley it is still stuffed with fish, cormorants or not, they are just not as keen on surface feeding as they once were.   Sad or not, it's a lost cause and to pursue it will only damage angling in the wider sense. There are plenty of other  places to fish anyway. In Scotland we are never going to be stuck  for fishing unless we screw it up ourselves by playing into the hands of those who would like to destroy us. Looking back on past glorious is enjoyable, but seldom productive. Ask any Aberdeen supporter!  

[The General]

What are the cormorants eating now in Leven??

The dolphins up here have certainly been a hot topic all this
season with the Ness fishermen.  Seals find it difficult to catch
salmon in the open sea, dolphins don't.   Anyway the dolphins
and the salmon have been around this area a long time as have
the seals not a lot us mortals can do about that.  I am wary about
tackling mother nature.

Davie

[Wildfisher]

The dolphins up here have certainly been a hot topic all this
season with the Ness fishermen.  Seals find it difficult to catch
salmon in the open sea, dolphins don't. 

Don't tell me these idiots are calling for a cull? Holy shit, what makes these people tick? Perhaps angling would be safer   if there were no salmon at all.