Nothing like killing off a migratory bird to make you feel better about saving a fishery. The birds do impact a area and it is really noticable around their rooks but are they really the problem facing the fishery?

Because the birds are migratory they could be said to belong to Canada and the USA. Regulations are in effect to control populations that live on both sides of the border. While the population may seem high in one area, all of those birds may spread out at the other end of there range. Killing part of a rookery may completely remove a population from another part of the continent.

A better solution would be to stop building roads and culverts that block fish migrations, stop throwing rock along the banks that prevents vegetation, stop paving the watersheds and dumping chemicals in the water, and etc... y'all get the point. People are the biggest impact on the fisheries, whether bait fisheries, commercial fishing, recreational fishing, or expanding into our watershed. The cormorants Aren't the problem, people are!

If the people are commercial fishers or fish farmers they should rethink what they are planning. Either way, the alewife populations in the Great Lakes are crashing which will impact all the salmonids.