RE: [Maine-birds] Killing cormorants

I always have found it odd how certain animals become pariahs in the minds of certain groups of people, and it turns into a very emotional response, including coyotes (which kill deer, but so do hunters, and so did wolves in the east before they were exterminated), cowbirds (which are only following their natural method of reproduction which is fascinating in its own way, and the real impact on birds is from human habitat alterations which give great advantage to cowbirds), even domestic cats (which I know are bird killers and should be kept inside, as I do with mine, but at the same time they are just doing what cats do and it is the owners who are the problem).  Seals eat fish and are thought to ruin fisherman's catches – yet seals did that for millennia and no extinction problems ever arose, Sea otters enjoy abalones and are blamed when that catch is low, instead of the overharvesting.

 

Cormorants just another example.  It doesn't help that they aren't cute.  At least the sea otters have that going for them.

 

Thanks BAB

 

===============================
Michael Smith MS GISP
State GIS Manager, Maine Office of GIS
State of Maine, Office of Information Technology
michael.smith _at_ maine.gov 207-215-5530

Board Member, Maine GeoLibrary
Education Chair, Maine GIS Users Group
State Rep, National States Geographic Information Council


State House Station 145
51 Commerce Drive
Augusta, ME 04333-0145
69^o 47' 58.9"W  44^o 21' 54.8"N

From: maine-birds@googlegroups.com [mailto:maine-birds@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Bruce Bartrug
Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2014 7:07 AM
To: maine-birds@googlegroups.com
Subject: [Maine-birds] Killing cormorants

 

Here's an incisive review of "The Double-crested Cormorant: a Feathered Pariah," a book I mentioned in an earlier post.  Included is an assessment of the planned Columbia River extermination.  As the reviewer here indicates, the book is a difficult read.  The author, Linda Wires, painstakingly chronicles events in the history of culling cormorants, and counters arguments for such killing based on science not emotion.  Too, seeing the political pressure put on the US Fish and Wildlife Service to initiate large culling programs, despite the Services own studies indicating such is not necessary, is truly disgusting.  I had to put the book down for a while to continue reading it.  The difference in treatment of the cormorants in the US and Canada, however, is enlightening.  This is not light reading and it won't make any best-seller lists.

http://www.animals24-7.org/2014/08/04/the-double-crested-cormorant-plight-of-a-feathered-pariah/

Cheers,

BAB

--
Bruce Bartrug
Nobleboro, Maine, USA
bbartrug@gmail.com
www.brucebartrug.com

The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.  - Albert Einstein

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