State and federal natural resources agencies are seeking public comments on a supplement to a 2006 environmental assessment (EA) that lays out a plan to manage damage caused by double-crested cormorants in Ohio.
The Interior Department’s Fish and Wildlife Service and its Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s Wildlife Services, and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Wildlife have prepared a supplement to the plan to reduce damage from double-crested cormorants in five Ohio locations. Wildlife Services is the lead agency for the EA and supplement; the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Ohio Division of Wildlife are cooperating agencies.
The original EA guides implementation of an Integrated Wildlife Damage Management approach to reduce damage associated with double-crested cormorants, to natural resources, property, aquaculture, and cormorant-related risks to public health and safety in Ohio. Management occurs where a need exists, a request is received, and landowners grant permission. The supplement to the EA provides information on implementation of the program since its start in 2006 and proposes updates to the management program.
The current program uses non-lethal methods such as physical exclusion, habitat modification or harassment to reduce cormorant conflicts. Where necessary, lethal methods are also used, including shooting, egg oiling or destruction, nest destruction, or euthanasia following live capture.
Double-crested cormorants are large, fish-eating birds that nest in colonies and roost together in large numbers. A reduction in eggshell-thinning pesticides (primarily DDT), increased protection under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and abundant food resources caused cormorant numbers and distribution to increase greatly in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Conflicts with human and natural resources, including impacts on commercial aquaculture, private property, recreational fisheries, vegetation and other waterbirds that nest with cormorants, and risks to human health and safety, led to a decision by the cooperating agencies in Ohio to develop a damage management strategy for the species.
The EA and Supplement cover damage management measures statewide. The primary areas for damage management efforts include West Sister Island, Green Island, Turning Point Island, Grand Lake-St. Mary’s and Portage Lakes.
Ohio cormorant populations increased from no breeding pairs in 1991 to a high of 5,164 pairs in 2005. From 2006-2012 an annual average of approximately 3,860 cormorants were removed for the protection of public resources. The statewide cormorant population ranged between 3,279 and 3,973 pairs during 2006-2010, spiked to 5,302 pairs in 2011 and then dropped to 4,038 pairs in 2012.
The cooperating agencies are working to maintain a cormorant population of 1,500-2,000 breeding pairs on West Sister Island because higher cormorant concentrations cause habitat destruction.
