Cormorants (also known as "The Black Death") are a particularly repulsive top predator that has migrated inland here in the UK from the sea to take advantage of the easy pickings of both coarse fish and trout that can be found throughout the lands waterways, lakes and reservoirs.

They take at least one fish a day and this can range in size from a few ounces up to to 3lb plus. They are not fussy - they will eat anything that swims from coarse fish such as eels, roach and perch through to game fish such as trout. Nothing is safe from them as they are an aggressive fast swimming active pursuer of prey. It is not uncommon to catch fish that are permanently scarred with stab wounds from the beaks of Cormorants. This can lead to a slow painful death as the internal organs of the fish may have been severely damaged when suffering this ravenous predators attack.

Let's do some conservative simple maths to show the damage they do to both a fisheries stocks and economics:
Let's say there is a permanent colony of 20 x pairs of Cormorants in residence at a lake.

1. So 40 x Cormorants take at least a fish a day - they can and do take more than a single fish in a day - so for the purposes of this exercise let's stick at 40 x fish.
2. A fish a day for a year = 365 x 40 = 14600
3. Let's do a simple cost of this to the fishery that is stocking trout @ say £1:00 per trout makes this a cost to the fishery of £14,600 per year

The above costing is based upon a pretty loose formula. The cost per trout may be double this or more. There is no provision for all of the coarse fish that have been taken also. However, regardless the result is absolutely outrageous and completely unacceptable in every sense.

How on earth a fishery can subsidise feeding Cormorants to this level in the modern era of austerity and continual cuts is a mystery to me. A bigger mystery is why the various organisations that put impediments in the way of controlling Cormorants and introduce other top fish predators, that similarly have no controls placed upon them into the environment, are not paying to feed their progeny. Currently anglers stump up a significant proportion of the fees they pay for the privilege of fishing that also pay for feeding Cormorants. A simple proposal for invoicing those such as the RSPB to subsidise any fishery or organisation that can prove Cormorants are feeding on fish that they have stocked is long overdue.

Express your support by voting Yes in the poll on this page: Should the RSPB and other similar organisations pay to feed Cormorants?:

Report your sightings of the rapacious Cormorants that are to be found throughout the countries watersides at Cormorant Watch

Join the Angling Trust and fight for a sane management system of top predators such as Cormorants on the nations waterways.

References:

Wikipedia Cormorant Article

RSPB Cormorant Article

Film References:

Cormorant Hunts for Breakfast A Cormorant doing what it does best, hunt catch and harry fish damaging them regardless of size!

Cormorant Eating Fish It does not matter that this was filmed in the US Everglades. This is what Cormorants do the world over.

Bird Swallows Whole Fish!

Pike - Another top predator eating trout

Pike Eating Trout