Cormorant surprises with deep dive

Adam Khor

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/08/120801-imperial-cormorant-dive-video-superbird-science/

Galvasean

Impressive. I always assumed they only went a few feet down.

Kess73

Have to say that Nat Geo has really dumbed down in recent years in terms of trying to present very old information as some kind of first.. Members of the cormorant family hunting/feeding at depths of 30m, 40m, and 50m is a pretty established fact for a long time now.

We don't even have to look very far to find examples of birds that have been recorded as those depths. The Shag has been recorded at depths of 50m in British waters and it is actually unknown as to what the maximum depth they go to is.


In Ireland the Great Cormorant dives to similar depths in both salt and fresh water, but also fishes in shallow water which is probably why they can be associated with shallow diving.

In Asian countries, cormorants have been used as a fishing tool by fishermen for over 1000 years and the practise has primarily been done in deep water and for species of fish that live at depths of 30m or more.


They are remarkably agile under water and very quick. I can say from personal experience that I have on occasion seen Great Cormorants coming up from tens of metres below me when I have been diving, or rather they were tens of metres below me by the time I noticed them

Adam Khor

Kess73 wrote: »

Have to say that Nat Geo has really dumbed down in recent years in terms of trying to present very old information as some kind of first.. Members of the cormorant family hunting/feeding at depths of 30m, 40m, and 50m is a pretty established fact for a long time now.

We don't even have to look very far to find examples of birds that have been recorded as those depths. The Shag has been recorded at depths of 50m in British waters and it is actually unknown as to what the maximum depth they go to is.


In Ireland the Great Cormorant dives to similar depths in both salt and fresh water, but also fishes in shallow water which is probably why they can be associated with shallow diving.

In Asian countries, cormorants have been used as a fishing tool by fishermen for over 1000 years and the practise has primarily been done in deep water and for species of fish that live at depths of 30m or more.


They are remarkably agile under water and very quick. I can say from personal experience that I have on occasion seen Great Cormorants coming up from tens of metres below me when I have been diving, or rather they were tens of metres below me by the time I noticed them

Well, I agree that Nat Geo (and Discovery News) tend to do that a lot lately... but sometimes for half-informed folks like myself, its not that bad See I knew about cormorants being used as aids to fish, and all that, but I didn´t know exactly how deep they went. I mean, I must have read it at one point but I'm bad at memorizing numbers XD

Kess73

Adam Khor wrote: »

Well, I agree that Nat Geo (and Discovery News) tend to do that a lot lately... but sometimes for half-informed folks like myself, its not that bad See I knew about cormorants being used as aids to fish, and all that, but I didn´t know exactly how deep they went. I mean, I must have read it at one point but I'm bad at memorizing numbers XD

I think the fact that I spend a decent bit of time around, on, in, and under water has me paying attention to the critters local and not so local that do the same.:)