How many trout do these diving birds really eat?

[Gollum11]

I don't know if they are gannets or cormorants, but I saw 3 of them at Milton lake yesterday and word must spread quickly because I counted over 20 there today! That is insane. I always remember seeing a few this time of year, but never in numbers like this. Can they eat a fish a day? If so they can really put a dent on a small lake in a hurry. Was just wondering if anyone else has noticed similar numbers on other bodies of water.

[oelgnal1]

It is my understanding that an adult cormorant needs to eat about a pound every day. As for a lake with open water, there is not a lot of open water in North Jersey, so where ever there is open water, they will go.

[jimcnj]

Goose crap bothers me far more.
I don't mind sharing the fish with the birds.

[buzzbaiter]

Mergansers can put a serious hurting on any smaller stream especially when water is low and trout(or any fish) have little refuge. On larger rivers - Delaware - not such a big deal. I spooked one "pod" of Mergansers along a steeam a few years back. One of them coughed up what it had eaten and it was one wild brown trout and two white suckers. You DON'T want to see them of the smaller creeks. They can stay under for up to 2 minutes which is impressive. Their bills are also serrated like a knife to grip slippery fish.

Cormorants I've only seen on larger lakes like Merrill. They seem to sit on branches of the flooded timber areas more than in the water feeding. Lots of them though - guess around 50 or so. Judging from all the fish in Merrill, they don't seem to be hurting the fish pops...yet.

[liveitup1.75liter]

They get quite a few!!! If the opportunity is there best believe there going to capitalize on it.. eat till they cant eat any more n try n stuff 1 more dwn.. ive seen the commerants choke dwn 16..17in fish.. birds gotta eat!! wut r ya gunna do ppl take over there habitat n get upset when they eat stocked trout.. we dnt own the fish jus trying to replenish wut we take in the first place

[ScowardNJ]

cormorants=bucket brigade

[Jigman13]

cormorants=bucket brigade

Thats hilarious, Scotty!

Gollum, those birds will decimate Milton. The number of birds will drop by about 75% come mid May. Still plenty of trout to be had in there and places within 10 miles of there.

[baetis]

Literature says they eat 1-2 lbs a day, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who has been at a pond and saw a bird eat more than that in an hour or so.

[Rickhem]

A couple of years ago I went with a friend to the park around Dahnert's Lake in Lodi. That lake is about the size of a large parking lot, all put-and-take fishing. Since my friend brought her granddaughter and they played in the park, I decided to throw some spinners for a while. In the hour or so while I watched, two Cormorants landed, and I watched one come up with a stocked trout TWICE! You could watch the fish slide down the birds throat as it swallowed it. That was in an hour! And it was long past when that lake was stocked, so I'm sure they were feeding there regularly.
We laughed about how all my ultralight equipment couldn't outfish a bird.

[jimcnj]

A couple of years ago I went with a friend to the park around Dahnert's Lake in Lodi. That lake is about the size of a large parking lot, all put-and-take fishing. Since my friend brought her granddaughter and they played in the park, I decided to throw some spinners for a while. In the hour or so while I watched, two Cormorants landed, and I watched one come up with a stocked trout TWICE! You could watch the fish slide down the birds throat as it swallowed it. That was in an hour! And it was long past when that lake was stocked, so I'm sure they were feeding there regularly.
We laughed about how all my ultralight equipment couldn't outfish a bird.

Hard to compete with millions of years of evolution.

[phil]

those birds will probably be leaving soon since theres no fish in milton :p

[Mark B.]

US Fish & Wildlife Service manages double crested cormorants: http://www.fws.gov/migratorybirds/CurrentBirdIssues/Management/cormorant/cormorant.html

Can’t get a depredation permit (permit to kill) for a NJ native species (double crested cormorant) preying on hatchery raised /stocked trout.

[goodfishin]

My son and I did the math last year on the four cormorants that methodically decimate Verona Lake. We worked out the numbers because despite the state stocking a ton of trout in that small lake, most of us anglers caught scarcely few. It was as if they had stocked a tiny fraction of what was reported.

So, the math:
- An adult cormorant can eat 4-5 fish a day
- Four cormorants = 16-20 fish a day
- The state allegedly stocked about 2,000 trout in Verona Lake last year

Multiplying those numbers out, those four damn birds wiped out up to 1,200 fish in just April and May alone. They likely cleaned out 2/3 of what was stocked... and that is not uncommon.

I saw them take out one fish after another last year. Saw one take out what looked to be at least a 3-lb bass that was so big, it practically choked on it. Hate those damn birds.

[hammer4reel]

Been watching the Hanover PA eagle cam. They have been eating 9-10 trout a day

[FASTEDDIE29]

This all goes back to the "SEE SOMETHING SAY SOMETHING" talk for me. Instead of that I'd like to change it to, " SEE A CORMORANT KILL A CORMORANT" I know it's not the right thing to do and I really do love our native wildlife. But this flock of birds is out of control. Mother Nature's predators are making moves and eating well.

My new phrase. "SEE A CORMORANT KILL A CORMORANT!!!!
Or you can simply feed it some Alka Seltzer!!!

LOL! TIGHT LINEZ!!!!!:D:):p:p:eek:

[FishnChips]

in one day i saw one bird commart eat 10 trout on opening day. they should kill them .i actually caugth one 2years ago in mouth and had to kill him some body said its a federal offence!

[jimcnj]

First they came for the cormorants, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a cormorants.

Then they came for the herons, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a heron.

Then they came for the eagles and ospreys, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not an eagle or an osprey.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

I really got to get out! Can't wait for Saturday morning.

[Bruce Litton]

Cormorants are gluttons. My favorite Lake Musconetcong is suffering from more than chemical treatment per se. Before anti-water chestnut campaign, the lake throve with all sorts of aquatic vegetation, though in the end the chestnuts had begun to take it all over. A few cormorants tried to dive, but for the most part couldn't with thick weeds. No sooner than Eurasian milfoil etc. got wiped out, cormorant population increased many times over. A few rocks grace the lake near the island, nice brown stone that appeals to the eye. Now they're white with cormorant excrement, the refuse of how many hundreds of pounds of bass and pickerel is staggering to contemplate.

[Bruce Litton]

Cormorants seem especially drawn to Musconetcong w/out weeds, because it's only 5 feet deep. In deep water, the birds have to work a little harder to find prey. Musconetcong has become a killing floor for these birds.

[Jedhead]

I could only wish that the state would open a year long hunting season on those birds. The amount of fish eating birds on any given water body in central/south jersey is disturbing. I have fished Carnagie, deal, Farrington and manasquan last year and I can easily understand why so many guys wonder why there are no sizable fish in the lakes based upon the amount of fish the state stocks. What a nice meal a 8" pike or any other stocker is for those birds. Just my 2cents.

[Gollum11]

Thanks for the info and stories everyone. They really don't rile me up too bad, I just thought it was an interesting question to ponder. What I really found fascinating was how fast they got there after the truck left!

[oelgnal1]

I heard about this last year down in South Carolina, they had a season on cormorants and over 11,000 were eliminated because of the effect they have had on the fishery and I believe they are a concern on Oneida.

[acaravaglia]

Those damn things eat all day. The state needs to step in. They were never in NJ when I was a kid.

[acabtp]

I could only wish that the state would open a year long hunting season on those birds.

i honestly don't think that would help that much. even if there were a season, none of us hunters like to eat fishy tasting birds. and if somebody were to just shoot them to throw them away, they could be ticketed for waste of game.

no easy solution.

[Almaink]

4 birds? Come on over to Lawrenceville at Colonial Lake and see 40 or 50 of them go at the stockies!
They also ate all the bass fry in there because I haven't seen or caught a bass in that lake since they moved in. Go take a look in the Delaware River from the Morrisville bridge. Hundreds of them gorging themselves on the herring we can no longer fish for. I saw one in the D&R Canal the other morning with a fish in its mouth. Way past time for these birds to get thinned out. I'll bet they taste like crap too, I hear most fish eating birds do.

[justin1982]

theres nothing worse than seeing those birds coming up with facefulls of trout. I actually saw one attack a pickeral, it couldn't get it down so it just slapped around and killed it...

[Gerry Zagorski]

They are evil and smart...

Was down in Florida fishing on a boat in Pine Island Sound. As soon as you stop the boat, they come to check you out to see if you're going to fish. If not, they move on, if they see a fishing pole they are going to hang out in the distance and see if you catch anything.


As soon as you catch a fish and try and release it they are on it like a Hobo on a muffin. These birds don't miss. They are not shy either... We tried yelling casting stuff at them etc and they would not leave. I'm thinking a paint ball gun might work :mad:

[Jigman13]

I caught a few largies in colonial last yr, about 2 lbs each, on white spinnerbaits ripped along the bank by the boat launch. There was a bunch elsewhere cruising around but wouldn't take.

You are correct on the number of cormorants over there. For a lake of that size, it has easily got to be the most densely populated with those birds. They'll wipe out half of the stocked fish by tomorrow...if not more.

[phil]

i did a driveby today, I counted at least 12, and 2 ospreys hovering over everything, never saw them dive on anything though, was really hoping to see that

[Suntzu]

Saw them cleaning up at Echo lake today, not one a mile down the road at nomahegan weird
They do love stockie trout

[Tightlines74]

I caught a few largies in colonial last yr, about 2 lbs each, on white spinnerbaits ripped along the bank by the boat launch. There was a bunch elsewhere cruising around but wouldn't take.

You are correct on the number of cormorants over there. For a lake of that size, it has easily got to be the most densely populated with those birds. They'll wipe out half of the stocked fish by tomorrow...if not more.

I used to live 5 minutes from colonial and i can echo your statement about the number of cormorants there.

Today i scouted out a small stocked lake in Monmouth co and struck up a conversation with park ranger, he estimates that the cormorants there will take 1/3-1/2 of the stocked trout. This to me beyond ridiculous given the $ spent on licences and trout stamps and the time and effort the DoW&G puts into trout stocking.

[justin1982]

Today a state volunteer was taking a fish and cormorant count, he mentioned that people were complaining that they are eating all the trout so possibly the state is trying to alleviate the problem?

[Rickhem]

They are evil and smart...

Was down in Florida fishing on a boat in Pine Island Sound. As soon as you stop the boat, they come to check you out to see if you're going to fish. If not, they move on, if they see a fishing pole they are going to hang out in the distance and see if you catch anything.


As soon as you catch a fish and try and release it they are on it like a Hobo on a muffin. These birds don't miss. They are not shy either... We tried yelling casting stuff at them etc and they would not leave. I'm thinking a paint ball gun might work :mad:

Like a hobo on a muffin???
funny