Cormorants still a concern to OFAH and local anglers

Colony of 300-plus observed on Lake Manitou

MANITOULIN--Tensions over the cormorant situation on the Island were largely defused earlier this year when the United Fish and Game Clubs of Manitoulin called off an unlawful cull planned for the May long weekend and the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) committed itself to a comprehensive study of the inland lakes. But much frustration remains.

The Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters (OFAH) has certainly not let the matter drop, as evinced by the striking half-page ad that appeared in these pages last week. The ad depicts dozens of cormorants nesting in treetops, as well as an inserted photo of a cormorant making off with a fish (a long-nosed garfish, in case you were wondering) in its beak. The text reads: "Support Cormorant Control," and "Over 450,000 reasons to join the OFAH."

The number 450,000 refers to the estimated number of cormorants in the Great Lakes, and no doubt the OFAH would also like to attract that many new members to its ranks to counter what it perceives as an out-of-control scourge.

OFAH Communications Coordinator Robert Pye stressed, however, that the campaign is not only about adding new members.

"It's not a membership drive," he insisted. "It's a 'control cormorants' campaign. We're doing this in the interest of conservation, and we're being very aggressive in our media approach." Apart from the ad in the Expositor, which Mr. Pye said was tailored for a Manitoulin audience, "we're also reaching out to all of Lake Huron, mostly through radio advertisements." As well, brochures bearing the same images and advice that appeared in the print ad are being mailed to individuals on Manitoulin. Concerned citizens are encouraged to sign up for an OFAH membership as well as a "cormorant control campaign kit."

According to Mr. Pye, the OFAH is "the only provincial organization actively pushing for cormorant control in the province. This year we discovered animal rights groups gained momentum in their campaigns (to prevent or disrupt culls), so we're really rolling up our sleeves now and saying this is an environmental crisis."

Mr. Pye noted that cormorants have recently made inroads into Algonquin Park, which is "considered the crown jewel of Ontario's natural resources." Manitoulin Island, meanwhile, represents "probably the worst case study for cormorant overpopulation in the province," Mr. Pye contends. "The ministry will say the numbers have decreased on Manitoulin, but the only thing that's happened is that they've moved inland to the lakes."

Jack Hayes, a veteran fishing guide on the Island, certainly wouldn't argue with the OFAH position that cormorants are moving to the inland lakes, although he expressed little interest in joining the organization. "I got something in the mail just today," he said last week, "but I've never been a member."

That's not to say he's unconcerned about the cormorant situation. Mr. Hayes noted that "there's an island in Button Bay on Lake Manitou, just east of Long Point, between there and Lonestar Point, where I estimate there's over 300 cormorants nesting right now. They've had their first batch of young, which are getting ready to fly, and there will be a second batch hatching soon."

While a colony of 300-plus cormorants on Manitou might sound like an escalating problem, Mr. Hayes noted that "this is nothing new; they've been there for years. Everyone who lives around here is aware of that island. The odour is so strong when you go around it, you almost gag."

Prior to the cormorants roosting on this island, it was a favourite spot for seagulls, Mr. Hayes said, so it wasn't as if it smelled terribly great before. The difference, he said, is that the seagulls "didn't wreck the trees." The island--which Mr. Hayes described as "a great big rock"--was never blessed in a lot of greenery, but "it had a lot more foliage than it has now," he said.

The fishing guide believes the island belongs to one of the townships on the Island, and wonders if municipal permission may be granted to destroy the birds, as private landowners have the right, through the Fish and Wildlife Act, to shoot cormorants that are degrading their property.

Don Mark, information specialist with the MNR, conceded that "cormorants nesting on your property and destroying vegetation because of the guano" would represent a circumstance in which a property owner has the right to shoot a cormorant, but cautioned that "it's not a black and white thing. If they're just crapping on your front lawn, or out eating fish in front of your property, can you blast them? It's not that simple. It's a discretionary point."

In its argument for the need for a cormorant control program, the OFAH cites the destruction of shoreline habitat as one of the key justifications for culling the birds. In its mail-out to Manitoulin residents, the organization urges, at the very top of the page, "Save our trees and fish," and it seems no accident that the trees come before the fish.

At Presqu'ile Park, near Brighton, a case was successfully made for a cormorant cull because the denuding and destruction of trees was severe enough that the province felt compelled (and was able) to act. The OFAH takes credit for this. "We were successful in having a cull in Brighton," said Mr. Pye, "and we believe we can be successful on Manitoulin Island." He added, however, that the hunting and fishing organization remains irked that "the MNR botched the cull" this year at Presqu'ile, failing to meet the target number of birds that were supposed to have been killed (in part because of pressure and interference from environmental and animal rights groups).

But while the OFAH may be sincere in its concern for vegetation, the organization is clearly most concerned with the impact that cormorants have on sports fish.

It's a concern that many Islanders, particularly anglers and resort owners, share. Fishing guides, too. When contacted last week, Mr. Hayes had just returned from a successful bass-fishing outing, but said that other fish species are increasingly scarce.

"I remember going out lake trout fishing on an August weekend, and counting 156 boats. The other day I went out for three hours' fishing, and we were the only boat," he noted.

The guide conceded that there are still bass and walleye, and even a few lake trout, in Lake Manitou, "but when kids and tourists say they want to catch some perch, there's no place on Manitou that I can take anybody now and say, 'we'll catch some perch here.'"

That dearth of perch has cost resort owners, Mr. Hayes said, pointing out that a group of 30 fishermen who have been coming to Timberlane Resort on Lake Manitou for over 30 years "are not coming back now, because last year they got seven fish for 30 guys."

It's affecting bait suppliers as well, said Mr. Hayes. And charter fishing businesses on the south shore are suffering, too, because "the salmon have dropped off."

"The bait fish are disappearing, and you can hardly see a rock bass now," the guide said. "The lakes used to be loaded with rock bass--but two years after the cormorants became real thick, the whole rock bass population disappeared. There's gotta be a reason for that." The MNR is presently examining exactly such questions through its multi-pronged inland lakes study which began earlier this summer. Cormorants are being killed on Lake Kagawong so their stomach contents can be analyzed, as part of a diet study. Other study components include aerial surveys to estimate the abundance of cormorants and establish "foraging pressure;" water sampling to determine "lake productivity" by assessing phosphorous and chlorophyll levels; and netting to gain a picture of fish populations and mortality, along with angler interviews to estimate total angler harvest.

According to Mr. Mark, this science is necessary before any cull can be sanctioned. "That's the whole reason we're doing this," he said. "Without an Environmental Bill of Rights posting, you're not going to be killing any birds."

Other countries are proceeding with cormorant culls on a much broader scale, however. Several US states have authorized culls in cormorant trouble spots, like Leech Lake in Minnesota, and the United Kingdom has implemented a policy that allows for one in 10 cormorants to be shot. According to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), "Nature Conservation Minister Ben Bradshaw has said that the annual limit for killing cormorants will be increased from the current 500 birds to 3,000 a year for two years."

The policy, which the RSPB opposes, is aimed at "actively reducing the cormorant population," according to the group's website. "For the first time, fisheries owners will not have to demonstrate that cormorants are damaging their stocks."

Dr. Mark Avery, director of conservation at the RSPB, argues at the group's website that "the government's own research shows that cormorants have a negligible impact on fish populations nationally and that any local problems can be reduced by non-lethal means." He calls the new policy announced by Minister Bradshaw "a snap decision" that "ignores the advice of his own scientists, and caves into pressure from anglers."

While this is all happening way across 'the pond,' the language of the debate--scientists, pressure from anglers--should sound familiar to folks in this former colony.

As for the colony of cormorants on Lake Manitou, presumably the number of birds roosting on that rocky island will have been duly noted by the MNR by now through its surveys, and we will see in due time whether their number squares with the guestimates of anglers.