Surfbirds News

The government implemented the revised policy after it caved in to the repeated calls from anglers for a cull of the fish-eating birds.

Great Cormorant by Steve Round from Surfbirds Galleries

The latest figures from Defra reveal that licences for the culling of 1800 cormorants had been issued up to the beginning of February. With a week to go before the cull ends for the summer break, on April 15, the RSPB is concerned that this figure will rise substantially. The policy allows for the killing of up to 3000 cormorants a year in England.

Dr Mark Avery, the RSPB’s director of conservation, said: "RSPB scientists believe the science behind the government’s revised cormorant decision is fundamentally flawed, resulting in a potentially serious underestimate of the impact of the cull on the UK’s breeding cormorant population.

"We have asked Defra’s chief scientific advisor to carry out an urgent and thorough review of the science informing the government’s policy.

"A significant reduction in the UK’s cormorant population could contravene European law."
ends

Notes:
1) Cormorants are protected by the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds (79/409/EEC) and, in England and Wales, by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. On 16 September 2004, Defra announced a new policy on controlling cormorants, under licence, in England.
2) Cormorants are included on the Amber list of Birds of Conservation Concern because the majority breed at fewer than 10 sites in the UK and the UK supports over 20% of the European wintering population.
3) The English wintering population of cormorants, based on corrected Wetland Bird Survey counts, is estimated to be 17,000 birds, from a Great Britain wintering population of 23,000 birds. The Seabird 2000 census recorded 2,896 pairs of cormorants nesting in England (excluding the Isle of Man and Channel Islands), from a UK breeding population of 8,884 pairs (including Northern Ireland, but excluding the Isle of Man and Channel Islands).
4) The recovery of the cormorant population in England has led to claims that the birds are damaging angling interests by eating fish. Research into the impact of cormorants on fisheries, much of it funded by the taxpayer, does not support the case for wide scale control of the birds.
5) Fish refuges are structures that can be positioned in a water body to provide cover for fish, and could be an effective way of protecting small still water fisheries from predation by cormorants. Defra’s own research has shown that these structures may reduce cormorant predation by up to 86 per cent.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds