Nearly 3,500 double-crested cormorants are targeted for elimination in the next year as wildlife officials try to control the birds that are scarfing baby salmon and affecting Northwest electric rates.
Thousands of double-crested cormorants are targeted for death because they are bad news for endangered salmon and Northwest ratepayers. (Photo By: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approved a one-year permit for the Army Corps of Engineers to cull the birds on East Sand Island near the mouth of the Columbia River, in part by shooting them.
The permit, issued April 13, also allows the Corps to remove almost 5,900 nests to cut back on predation of juvenile salmon.
Utilities, including electric cooperatives, have supported efforts to reduce the population of cormorants, which feast on juvenile salmon and steelhead, including species listed as endangered under federal law. One-third of the wholesale rates Bonneville Power Administration charges co-ops and other customers is tied up in fish and wildlife protection.
Five conservation organizations, led by the Audubon Society of Portland, filed a lawsuit April 20 in U.S. District Court in Portland, Ore., to try to stop what they called the “slaughter” of double-crested cormorants. No hearing date has been set.
“This is not about birds versus fish,” said Bob Sallinger, Audubon Society of Portland conservation director. “Blaming salmon and steelhead declines on wild birds that have coexisted with salmon since time immemorial is nothing more than a diversion.”
However, a spokesman for the Fish and Wildlife Service said the agency expects the Corps to start operations soon because the number of cormorants on East Sand Island tends to peak in mid-June.
In a report issued earlier this year, the Corps said it plans to kill large numbers of birds by shooting them from elevated platforms and applying oil to eggs, which suffocates the embryo inside.
The actions for 2015 are part of a four-year plan to reduce the number of breeding pairs on the island from 12,900 to less than 6,000.
According to data from the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, the island nesting population ate at least 74 million juvenile salmon from 2010 to 2013. The predation equaled a loss of about 740,000 adult salmon and steelhead that would have returned to the river.
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