“It’s creating havoc on Ship Island,” he said of the strip of land in Lake Couchiching that has been laid to waste by cormorants, “but it’s also polluting our water.”, Cipolla would prefer to see the birds’ eggs oiled to prevent hatching, but he said hunting with a 15-per-day limit is “a good start.”. This whole cormorant thing is the tip of that iceberg.”. Fish and Wildlife Service says if the state of Michigan asks, it will grant permission to hunt the bird. But the bill might not be necessary. Powers is a veterinarian and angler who also owns the hardware store on Beaver Island. He says humans are in danger of forgetting what a natural system looks like, while the planet gets crowded and warm. In 2004, there were almost 1,800 double-crested cormorant nests on Goose Island, a strip of land in northern Lake Huron about 500 feet wide and less than a mile long. It passed out of a House Committee in July. "The Michigan Department of Natural Resources is committed to the conservation, protection, ... Cormorant populations in the Great Lakes have increased from very few nests in 1977 to an estimated 30,000 nests in 2001 (Wires et al. Jim Ludwig offered to speak but no public comment was allowed. Nathan Taylor/OrilliaMatters file photo. Credit CREDIT MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES. There was conflict elsewhere too, with catfish farmers in the South fending off cormorants in the winter. Double-crested cormorants June 29, 2016. Michigan Sportsman - Online Michigan Hunting and Fishing Resource. Even James Audubon had a mixed reaction to cormorants. Founded in 1999, Michigan-Sportsman.com started as a collection of links to Michigan related sites, and a series of manually edited blogs. Cormorants destroy vegetation with their acidic feces. Goose Island in northern Lake Huron. He is one of the few public advocates the bird has. Ludwig warns of a larger issue in all this. When Romanik saw the cormorant colony on Goose Island, he saw a threat to one of his favorites place to hunt rabbits. Some wanted to establish hunting seasons—even though nobody eats cormorants. Gus Bell is an instructor at Great Lakes Boat Building School in Cedarville. Conflict with these waterbirds is longstanding in coastal communtities where fishing is important and the birds nest by the hundreds or even thousands. But some ornithologists say they see no danger of cormorants becoming super abundant in the upper Great Lakes again. Francie Cuthbert, an ornithologist from the University of Minnesota who visited the island then, says it was like a ghost town. U.S. Republican Rep. Jack Bergman, whose district covers northern lower Michigan and the Upper Peninsula, said wildlife conservation and economic interests can be balanced. Cormorant hunting season will be open from Sept. 15 to Dec. 31. A large colony could turn a forested area into open sandy place with no cover for a hare. This pile of rocks in the middle of northern Lake Huron had 251 nests counted there this past spring. U.S. But the amount of fish in Lake Michigan has been in steep decline now for 20 years and is at record low levels. Cormorant drying its wings on the wreck of the Francisco Morazan off South Manitou Island. The racoons would not harm adult birds, but they would raid their nests for eggs and chased every colonial waterbird from the island. Cormorants have big webbed feet and are built to swim. Some colonies of Cormorants have been observed herding fish for more efficient hunting. “They have been steadily rising, but the round goby population has been rising, too. “Cormorants caused unmeasurable stress,” she says. “There was nothing there.”. What are cormorant birthing rituals like? … The ministry stated, “If hunters choose to not use the birds they harvest, they must dispose of the birds by either: More information about the hunting of cormorants can be found here. “This used to be just one row along the shoreline” he says. Cormorants have direct impacts on valuable and sensitive fish populations. Sign in or register for your free account, Local naturalist would rather let nature run its course; 'The cormorants are doing us a favour' by eating invasive fish, he counters. Fish and Wildlife is already issuing permits to fish farmers in the southern U.S. to kill cormorants. Cormorant swimming off South Manitou Island. This article also appeared in Bridge Magazine with the help of David Zeman. The view that double-crested cormorants are an invader that threaten the natural integrity of the ecosystem is a common sentiment in upper Michigan. Anglers and congressmen are now renewing calls for lethal force. There are far fewer of these migratory birds left in the region after years of lethal control. Bay City, Mich. (AP) – Michigan officials want federal permission to kill more cormorants to help reduce the shorebirds’ impact on human fishing in the Great Lakes. Many species also hunt together. Jim Ludwig has been studying birds here his entire life. Fewer than 2,000 were counted two years ago, thanks to lethal control. The cormorant colony on the island has since been cut down to 4,000 pairs. sureshot006 Staff Member Mods. Wreck of the Francisco Morazan at sunset. The ministry stated, “If hunters choose to not use the birds they harvest, they must dispose of the birds by either: delivering it to an approved waste disposal site that permits the disposal of dead animals; Cormorants did not return for a few years, but 426 nests were counted this year. “They’ll be managed for some human purpose only. Cormorants destroy vegetation with their acidic feces. If the round goby population falls off, the cormorant population will fall off.”. This graphic shows, in blue, the amount of perch caught in survey nets around the Les Cheneaux Islands in northern Lake Huron over nearly a half century. The Kirtland's warbler is one of those species. The number of cormorant nests are shown in red. It does not appear the matter will be settled by scientific or ethical debate. Is that ethical? In all, there were probably 3,000 nests on Goose Island in 2004. Cormorants are colonial nesters, with colonies holding up to 4,000 individuals. Cuthbert, the ornithologist, says back then the U.S. Powers helped coordinate that effort. Back in June, Jeff Powers anchored his boat up alongside the east end of Whiskey Island. “I’m fond of saying that all a colonial waterbird had to do was fly out over the lake and open its bill and fall in and it’d have a fish,” says Ludwig, an American scientist who lives in Canada and works independently. It was a marriage of my passions for the outdoors and the internet. In these states, hunting requires both a state and federal license. Messages: 31,569 Likes Received: 38,100 Location: Brownstown. In 2003, U.S. Dan Kennedy from Michigan DNR joined Stateside to discuss the Kirtland warbler's remarkable comeback. Because Ludwig he has no affiliation with a university or agency, he says he is free to criticize government policy and was in fact a plaintiff in the lawsuit that stopped cormorant control in 2016. Whiskey is part of the Beaver Island archipelago, a remote set of islands in the middle of northern Lake Michigan. Discussion in 'Detroit River and Lake Erie' started by sureshot006, Aug 17, 2019. The control reduced the number of nesting cormorants in the upper Great Lakes by about two-thirds. Forums > Michigan Hunting > General Michigan Hunting > Cormorants Discussion in ' General Michigan Hunting ' started by Chad Fortier , Oct 16, 2020 . Blue herons and night herons nested there, as did herring gulls. The population in the Great Lakes went from a few thousand birds in the 1970s to a peak of 115,000 nesting pairs around 2000. “What will life be like if natural systems are gone, if all natural systems are all quote managed,” he asks. The province announced Friday the fall hunting season for double-crested cormorants will begin this year on Sept. 15 and last until Dec. 31. It is one of six species of cormorants in North America and one of 38 species worldwide. Others, including the National Audubon Society and the Humane Society of the United States, rallied to the cormorants’ defense, citing a lack of scientific evidence that cormorants actually damage fish or wildlife populations. Stateside's conversation with Detroit Free Press reporter Keith Matheny. From the perspective of islanders, the birds remain an existential threat. Russ Mason is wildlife chief for the state Department of Natural Resources. Fish and Wildlife Service to restore the use of lethal force against cormorants. “They’re coming back because of the round goby in Lake Simcoe and Lake Couchiching,” he said, adding he has been monitoring cormorant colonies in both lakes. So far, that has not happened, though the government announced last year that individual lethal control permits would be granted on a case-by-case basis if the applicant could show proof of damage or safety risks caused by the birds. More than 11,500 cormorant nests were counted here in 2007. Michigan would join 15 other states that currently allow sandhill crane hunting. Each bird eats 1.3 to 1.6 pounds of fish daily. People who study birds are now using radar to make maps that can forecast migration at night. Fifty years ago, the songbird was nearly extinct. The double-crested cormorant is a goose-sized waterbird native to North America. They’re found all over North America and nest in the spring on remote islands in the Great Lakes. 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