Cormorants:

[AndyS]

Chief Jeff Matthews, Bureau of Fish Production, commended the production staff of the hatcheries and bureaus involved with the trout program this year. The most complaints were about the cormorant issue.
Chief Lisa Barno, Bureau of Freshwater Fisheries, reported on Opening Day of Trout Season and distributed two charts, one of lakes/ponds the other of streams/rivers, with the results of opening day angler surveys taken comparing waterbodies, number of anglers and number of trout caught.Cormorants were once again reported to be prevalent on a number of waterbodies.

[youngdumbandfulloffish]

Wow! are those pictures in NJ? I've seen 1 or 2 at a body of water but 5+!!!!! That could destroy a stretch of river or a lake/pond. Not to encourage illegal behavior but can someone tell the bucket brigade they taste like chicken ;):p

[briansnat]

I've seen or two, but never large groups such as the ones in the photos.

[Eskimo]

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Cormorants are bad news. They really like Merrill Creek Reservoir.

I don't mind sharing the environment with other fish predators. I love seeing eagles, ospreys, and loons. The trouble with Cormorants is there are so damn many of them.

The Eskimos had a way of 'fishing' for birds like these. The would sharpen both ends of a piece of bone or antler to a sharp point and tie a string in the middle. Then they would insert the pin in a fish length-wise and release it. When the bird grabbed the fish and ate it, it would pull on the string, the pin would shift and lodge itself in the bird's gizzard. The bird would then be tethered by the string.


http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-get2/I00009IEhULGT_0w/fit=1000x750/Black-Shag-09-5306-2.jpg

http://www.avondiary.net/images11/cormtrout.jpeg


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[buzzbaiter]

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Cormorants are bad news. They really like Merrill Creek Reservoir.

.

yup. they are all over the timber sections. i would say dozens of them.

[baetis]

I'm concerned that trout stocking some of the small ponds attracts the bird which in turn decimates not only the temporary trout, but also the bass and year-round fish.

[Jigman13]

Anyone ever fish Milton lake recently? Dozens of them on the dam and exposed timber. It's crazy.

The population of them down at Carnegie was growing too.

Buckshot anyone? Lol

[youngdumbandfulloffish]

I'm concerned that trout stocking some of the small ponds attracts the bird which in turn decimates not only the temporary trout, but also the bass and year-round fish.

That's an interesting thought. I've only seen them chowing down on trout but I assume they'll eat just about anything.

[FASTEDDIE29]

I say kill em all but that's just my PAGAN side of the family speaking out loud.............:mad:

[phil]

Anyone ever fish Milton lake recently? Dozens of them on the dam and exposed timber. It's crazy.

The population of them down at Carnegie was growing too.

Buckshot anyone? Lol

I don't think there is anything left in that wastehole, sunnies included

[NJSquatch]

I say kill em all but that's just my PAGAN side of the family speaking out loud.............:mad:

People
Against
Goodness
And
Normalcy

[bunker dunker]

lots of states have opened a hunting season on them.there are just to many and the eat up to 7lbs of fish a day.

[Almaink]

Take a ride over the Calhoun street bridge and look down. They are gorging themselves on the herring as I write this that we are no longer able to catch and use as bait. It's gone far enough time for the State to take action.

[NJ219bands]

Until this year, I saw > 50 cormorants at the Carnegie Lake Aqueduct every spring. Maybe they stayed away this year because of the fish kill there or http://www.thestate.com/news/local/article13846073.html worked.

[Bruce Litton]

They're awful. Once they bombed LM with weed killer, cormorants moved in by the dozens. Until then, weeds were so thick, cormorants couldn't navigate underwater.

[Jigman13]

I don't think there is anything left in that wastehole, sunnies included

You'd be surprised what lives in there. Tough to find but they're in there

[dakota560]

I'm convinced the flounder problem down the shore is largely due to the explosion of cormorants in the inland waterways. You can go down in the spring and watch these birds come up with one flounder after another and not just small fish. Years ago you would see thousands of baby flounder in the marinas during the summer after the flounder dropped their eggs in the spring, the bottom was lined with them. You don't see them anymore even though the fishery is basically closed and fish are still spawning. I believe cormorants are gorging on the young before they have a chance to leave the river. One cormorant probably eats hundreds of small flounder a day multiplied by how may cormorants are down there. It's an epidemic.

[Jigman13]

Seals eat their fair share too. See them in Morgan creek in early spring coming up with flatties in their mouths when helping my father prep the boat.

[River Renegade]

Hate those birds so much, they ruin everything and eat all the trout, bass etc. The state needs to do something. But as always they won't since NJ is cheap and don't like spending $$$$$$ :mad:

[River Renegade]

lots of states have opened a hunting season on them.there are just to many and the eat up to 7lbs of fish a day.

If NJ is one of them? I'll gladly take them out since i hunt.

[henro]

I hate these birds. There's flocks of them all over Merrill Creek regularly.

[FishnChips]

like i said in the last thread on cormorants i met a fish n game officer.hewas unaware of a problem. all he cared about was my license. thats nj for us.

[Almaink]

Good read on these devil birds from off the Facebook page.
http://www.wildlife-research-team.org/cormorantdevil.html

[River Renegade]

like i said in the last thread on cormorants i met a fish n game officer.hewas unaware of a problem. all he cared about was my license. thats nj for us.

That's the only thing the game wardens care about is the freshwater license. They don't give a hoot about anything else that's going on!

[acabtp]

like i said in the last thread on cormorants i met a fish n game officer.hewas unaware of a problem. all he cared about was my license. thats nj for us.
That's the only thing the game wardens care about is the freshwater license. They don't give a hoot about anything else that's going on!

i hate seeing the cormorants too, and i've been seeing a bunch this spring, so i understand the frustration, but you gotta remember there are a whole bunch of different jobs at DFW. like at a car dealer - you wouldn't expect the salesman to be able to change your timing belt would you? no - that's the service guy's job and he's a pro at it. the COs are basically the DFW cops so yeah they are mostly just interested in the laws like checking licenses. if you call or email a DFW biologist about the impact the cormorants are having you are much more likely to find someone who cares/knows because that's the kind of stuff their job is about.