cormorants

kildare lad

I went to Ramor yesterday. when i was walking down to the bank, there was 7 cormorants in the water. i stopped and observed them for a few minutes. everyone one of them was diving down takin fish. When i got down to the bank they flew off. After about an hour or so i looked out an seen at least 30 of them a bit out in the lake. Cormorants eat up to 3lb of fish a day, so if you do the maths its a lot of fish they take. Do they cull them here in ireland?

Zzippy

kildare lad wrote: »

I went to Ramor yesterday. when i was walking down to the bank, there was 7 cormorants in the water. i stopped and observed them for a few minutes. everyone one of them was diving down takin fish. When i got down to the bank they flew off. After about an hour or so i looked out an seen at least 30 of them a bit out in the lake. Cormorants eat up to 3lb of fish a day, so if you do the maths its a lot of fish they take. Do they cull them here in ireland?

They are protected under the Wildlife Act. Some fishery managers in the past have got limited permits to shoot a certain number, I don't know if that still happens. IFI commissioned a study a couple of years ago into the impact and diet of cormorants - it should be on their website if you do a search for cormorant (www.fisheriesireland.ie)

scuby

They clean out rivers. Had loads of them in local rivers years ago until they were kindly persuaded to go away !! Came across one that had an 18" rainbow trout in him from local trout lake

CalamariFritti

I'm an angler myself but I wouldn't begrudge a cormorant their fish. It's their natural food, they are a fishing bird. They have as much a right to fish as I do.

scuby

Yep, but the amount they take daily, multiplied by a few of them in a small river, there will be nothing left to fish for

Hotei

kildare lad wrote: »

Do they cull them here in ireland?

They are being culled, but illegally. I have been told by two anglers in recent days that Cormorants are being shot along parts of the Liffey in Kildare.

idnkph

kildare lad wrote:

I went to Ramor yesterday.


How did you get on? Did you catch anything?

kildare lad

idnkph wrote: »

kildare lad wrote:

I went to Ramor yesterday.


How did you get on? Did you catch anything?

only up there for a few hours, one dropped run...

kildare lad

CalamariFritti wrote: »

I'm an angler myself but I wouldn't begrudge a cormorant their fish. It's their natural food, they are a fishing bird. They have as much a right to fish as I do.

they're a sea bird and they shouldn't be inland. i know we've mess up the oceans as theres not enough food for them at sea, but two wrongs dont make a right, they cleaned out a little lake near me a few years ago, Ive no problem with otters, heron, kingfishers even a few cormorants but the amount i seen on one part of ramor cant be good for future fish stocks.

blackpearl

Ramor is a wildfowl santuary that would be the reason their are a lot of them their, a lot of duck shooting going on over the winter on the other big lakes to much disturbance their are big roosts on ramor so it suits them .

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

kildare lad wrote: »

they're a sea bird and they shouldn't be inland. i know we've mess up the oceans as theres not enough food for them at sea, but two wrongs dont make a right, they cleaned out a little lake near me a few years ago, Ive no problem with otters, heron, kingfishers even a few cormorants but the amount i seen on one part of ramor cant be good for future fish stocks.

Just for clarity, they are a Waterbird, not a Seabird.

archer22

kildare lad wrote: »

they're a sea bird and they shouldn't be inland. i know we've mess up the oceans as theres not enough food for them at sea, but two wrongs dont make a right, they cleaned out a little lake near me a few years ago, Ive no problem with otters, heron, kingfishers even a few cormorants but the amount i seen on one part of ramor cant be good for future fish stocks.

How on Earth can a wild fishing bird fishing to survive as nature intended be committing a "wrong"

blackpearl

They eat between 5 to 15 fish every day mostly in 3 to 6 inch range between 1 to 1 and halfpounds of fish per bird do the maths and count the birds on the lake .

archer22

blackpearl wrote: »

They eat between 5 to 15 fish every day mostly in 3 to 6 inch range between 1 to 1 and halfpounds of fish per bird do the maths and count the birds on the lake .

What are they supposed to do go on diets!!.

Anyhow if there is Pike in the lake they probably eat about the same.

Predators and prey...balance of nature I believe its called, and I never heard of a predator yet (apart from Humans) that ever denuded a fishery of stock.

blackpearl

Fish sheelin alot not a major problem but the locals say most of the corms come from ramor its the major roost for them in the cavan area big rise in the inland population, their still loads of them around the coast.

dodderangler

I remember years and years ago fishing the corrib and came across a few islands that were stinking and had colonies of cormorants on it.
We had breeding pair on dodder years ago that were swallowing trout t beat the band. Few complaints and one day they were gone. Someone must've taken them out.