charlieannear Posted February 22, 2012 Report Share Posted February 22, 2012 This is an important campaign for many reasons, including: -Many sea anglers also indulge in a spot of freshwater angling, so the impact of Cormorants on freshwater stocks will have a direct impact on them. However, I think there is an opportunity to use this campaign to get freshwater anglers behind Sea Angling campaigns, i.e. "Why are these seabirds having to plunder freshwater stocks in the first place" Cormorant Campaign On the flip side, I personally think this is treading dangerous ground, and needs to be managed very carefully, or risks alienating those members of the general public who we have said in other threads that we need to somehow recruit to support the AT... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisE Posted February 22, 2012 Report Share Posted February 22, 2012 You are right to be concerned. There is a counter proposition doing the rounds, there is a signature sheet in the tackle shop in Ashley condemning the killing of cormorants on the grounds that next people would be asking to kill kingfishers and other protected species. Personally I support the AT campaign but others clearly do not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul J Posted February 23, 2012 Report Share Posted February 23, 2012 Interesting one Charlie, im not sure where i stand on this. On one hand i dont like the idea of killing the birds, on the other we are responsible for messing up the natural balance ( extracting sea fish) so perhaps we should readdress the balance by culling them - a very sorry situation. I think you are right about the opportunitiy to get these guys on our side as i think many are sympathetic to our situation eg the commercial exploitation of the sea which clearly has had an impact on them PJ PS: i've asked Charlie to consider whether this section should be members only due to it's sensitive nature, not sure what others think? Pro's- stops the likes of shotter wading in un-invited cons - we wont get quality imput from the likes of Reg Phillips etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Posted February 23, 2012 Report Share Posted February 23, 2012 I think the birds are heading in-land for no fault of their own, just the fact that, there are no longer huge sandeels shoals all along the coast which helps sustain everything that feeds on them. Instead they are ground up and used as farm feed and fertilizer etc! I remember I guy I used to work with telling me, when he was a lad,, he could take a net down to hamworthy beach and in a matter of seconds fill it with eels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wotu2uk Posted February 23, 2012 Report Share Posted February 23, 2012 puffins next? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pirky Posted February 24, 2012 Report Share Posted February 24, 2012 (edited) Apparently one Cormorant needs a minimum of 1lb of fish per day to live .... in two recorded roosts not far from the Avon at Ibsley there are over a hundred of these birds .... that is a lot of fish going down their throats.....Not sustainable !! When the eel were on the beaches there was also a lot of culling going on ... apparently there was a bounty for Cormorant beak. I am all for balance, conservation, retaining species etc etc .... we as the dominant race will continue to interfere with the balance ..... problems occur when we do extreme things for short term impact ... steady culling to control the numbers is better than allowing uncontrolled population explosions that are not sustainable.... UK has the Eastern European Cormorant moving in now !!! Being discussed on another site too... Quote.... The public would rather the cormorants, herons, egrets, grebes, mergansers, etc. eat them than the anglers themselves, or anglers just fishing for them for sport and pleasure! Basically, as a suggestion, in future stuff I think we need to include higher impact pics that that tells the real story as below. The impact on our lakes, rivers and the riverine food chain is probably 5-10 fold more than quoted on fish weight taken per year, in my opinion. See pic links below! Interestingly, I also found this old quote from the RSPB that tells a different story also: Sophie Atherton, from the RSPB, said cormorants can swallow creatures up to two-and-a-half feet long. She said: "Cormorants have been recorded to eat 86 different species of fish from tiny fry to two-and-a-half-foot-long conger eels. Edited February 24, 2012 by pirky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Fox Posted February 24, 2012 Report Share Posted February 24, 2012 The best way for their numbers to be controlled is to get a celebrity chef to declare them a delicacy... Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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