Quote:
Originally Posted by flyersnfluke
Hi Gerry and others,
There are over 1300 breeding pair of cormorants in the ny bight area. The closer colonies are in Jamaica bay and Hoffman and Swinburne islands, there are 2 others on the western edge of long island sound (I assume these birds are feeding in long island sound).
I did read the article, and I am certainly in favor of controlling cormorant populations (breeding colonies) that are near lakes (they're a huge problem in northern NY, and the DEC does not issue enough permits or have a high enough cull rate with the permits they give out). The colonies the article mentions are much much higher than what we have around here. Fish populations in lakes are much more susceptible to crashing due to cormorant feeding because recruitment into lakes is pretty much only possible by stocking them, and with high cormorant numbers stocking doesn't do much.
Locally, in the NY bight, cormorants are spread out where they're feeding; what's the largest number of cormorants you've seen in one area feeding? While they are certainly efficient predators they don't really specialize/target particular species of fish (which we do) , they're very opportunistic. Cormorants are feeding on all kinds of things: crabs, amphipods, spearing, killies, cunner and of course some of the fish we go after (tog, sea bass, fluke etc...). If you're fishing sandy hook bay, the reach channel, or off sandy hook, you'll see cormorants, but the number of people fishing far surpass the number of feeding cormorants, and although we don't always catch as many fish as we'd like, there are times when the bite is on and a lot of the boats do quite well in catching a bunch of fish (and are all of the shorts surviving once we release them). I just don't believe the cormorants are the boogeyman that many make them out to be, I do agree with controlling their populations though, in both fresh and saltwater colonies.
cheers and have a safe Labor Day Weekend
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Hats off to you Flyer for making this a logical argument and keeping it civil.
I've been fishing for many more years then I care to mention here but in the last few, I can't remember going out on the bay in the Sandy Hook area and not seeing 1 or 2 actively fishing in every spot I go to. In fact, I was out to lunch the other day and saw 2 actively feeding inside the Atlantic Highlands Marina right in front of me.
I was also in Florida recently fishing the Pine Island Sound and every time we caught a Sea Trout and release it, there were several Cormorants laying in wait for us to release the fish so they could eat it.... It got so bad that we'd stop, catch a fish or 2, they would show up and we'd move to keep them off our trail and from eating what we released.
I think we can agree that these birds need to be kept in check... They are not only great hunters, they are smart, not shy and very opportunistic and will definitely effect fishing in an area if not controlled.
You have a safe and great Labor Day Weekend too and I mean that with all sincerity.
