Cormorants are making a meal of River Calder salmon (From Lancashire Telegraph)
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Cormorants are making a meal of River Calder salmon
2:41pm Monday 19th November 2012 in News By Sophia Rahman, Reporter
Cormorants are making a meal of River Calder salmon
CORMORANTS are decimating the endangered Atlantic salmon population in the River Calder, anglers have claimed.
The birds are also damaging the profitable angling industry in Cliviger and the wider area.
Their move inland is believed to have been precipitated by the lack of food found in the Irish sea because of overfishing.
Sand eels, a common name for a number of fish species, are a source of food for many sea predators, but are being used by humans for fertiliser driving many birds and larger fish to find food inland.
Fred Higham, chairman of Ribblesdale Angling Association, said: “They are doing a tremendous amount of damage.”
The River Ribble and the Calder tributary are one of the only places in the country where Atlantic salmon will breed.
One cormorant can eat four full grown Atlantic salmon, sea trout and brown trout a day.
Mr Higham said: “The revenue is down year on year since the cormorants have moved inland and anglers are very concerned not only about the loss of revenue but the loss to the local economy and wildlife.”
Experts have said the number of the birds feeding on rivers across the country has multiplied since the 1980s.
Mr Higham said: “I’ve been a keen angler in the area for more than 60 years and I have never seen so many of the birds.
“You didn’t see them on rivers 20 or 30 years ago.”
Ribblesdale and Clitheroe’s angling associations were granted licences for each club to cull four cormorants a year in 2012, which has been renewed for 2013.
Mr Higham said: “I’m a bird lover, but we have to control predators.”
Super underwater swimmers
- Cormorants are members of the pelican family, with all four toes on each foot webbed, which helps them in swimming and chasing fish underwater.
- They live in coastal areas around Great Britain and
- Europe, Africa, Asia, eastern North America and Australia, but are often seen inland around lakes and rivers.
- They are usually around 90cm in length, have a fairly long-neck and are browny-black above, bluish-black below. They also have white patches on their chins and sides of face.
- They mainly eat fish and some molluscs and crustaceans.
- Cormorants nest in colonies, sometimes numbering thousands, on rocky cliffs, rocky islets or sometimes by rivers and lakes, even in trees.
- They are often seen perched with their wings outstretched. This is thought to allow them to dry their large wings quickly.
Comments(15)
bikerjohn_uk
says...
2:53pm Mon 19 Nov 12
Eh? Methinks Mr. Higham is having a giraffe. Either that or he's getting his cormorants mixed up with grizzly bears. It's true that they are becoming more common further inland (I've seen them at Hurstwood on the reservoir), but four full grown salmon a day? Sounds a bit fishy to me...
Interocitor
says...
3:08pm Mon 19 Nov 12
chris283
says...
7:08pm Mon 19 Nov 12
A Darener
says...
8:00pm Mon 19 Nov 12
Burnley_resident1
says...
9:25pm Mon 19 Nov 12
A Darener
says...
9:34pm Mon 19 Nov 12
Not exactly in extinction mode.
halfhearted
says...
10:33pm Mon 19 Nov 12
chris283 wrote:What about the damage to wildlife you and your fellow anglers have caused over the years ?
these birds are a menace they should be culled as a angler i know the damage they can do
If anything requires culling its you and like minded people. You fish for sport,these birds fish to live.
halfhearted
says...
10:33pm Mon 19 Nov 12
chris283 wrote:What about the damage to wildlife you and your fellow anglers have caused over the years ?
these birds are a menace they should be culled as a angler i know the damage they can do
If anything requires culling its you and like minded people. You fish for sport,these birds fish to live.
2 for 5p
says...
5:44am Tue 20 Nov 12
chris283 wrote:What's it like to have the worlds most boring hobby.
these birds are a menace they should be culled as a angler i know the damage they can do
Bob Bobbins
says...
7:35am Tue 20 Nov 12
And now man is kicking off again? How about not overfishing and not interfering with the natural world. This is no excuse to cull cormorants. If man didn't create the problem in the first place, then this wouldn't be happening.
bikerjohn_uk
says...
8:21am Tue 20 Nov 12
2 for 5p wrote:Worm drowners and fluff chuckers. Great.
chris283 wrote:What's it like to have the worlds most boring hobby.
these birds are a menace they should be culled as a angler i know the damage they can do
UKCougar
says...
9:14am Tue 20 Nov 12
peregrine.soars
says...
10:06am Tue 20 Nov 12
The other predators need to leave them alone. The so called countryside folk just want to kill because its what they do and think they are elite and special.
Kermit The Frog
says...
11:17am Tue 20 Nov 12
Anglers are complaining that hungry birds are eating their fish supplies and preventing from continuing their 'sport'??
What a **** up world we live in - how about the anglers let nature happen and let the birds eat the fish instead of trying to catch them?
Unbelievable arrogance from the anglers.
tealeaf56 says...
2:48pm Mon 19 Nov 12