The plan is in the form of a final Environmental Impact Statement and is under review. If the plan is approved, Oregon’s state agricultural officials could begin shooting the birds and oiling the nests, a process that keeps the eggs from hatching, on East Sand Island at the mouth of the Columbia River, as soon as this spring.
Diana Fredlund, a spokesperson for the Army Corps, said that the plan for killing off 11,000 birds is a difficult decision but is an alternative to killing 18,000 cormorants by 2018, which was the original number cited. “This is a difficult situation,” she said. “We are trying to balance the salmon and steelhead versus the birds. It’s very difficult to find the right answer and so it’s taken us a long time. We’ve had a lot of experts working on it.”
The Army Corps. has looked at other alternatives to reducing the burgeoning population of the seabirds, including “hazing.” but decided that scaring the birds away with gunshots would just send the problem down the road to someone else. “This is a regional problem,” Fredlund said.
The U.S. Army Corps. of Engineers say they decided to take action after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released a Biological Opinion last year, calling for a decrease in the bird population from 13,000 breeding pairs now to just under 6,000 or fewer by 2018, as well as the destruction of up to 26,000 nests.
The Federal Environmental Impact Statement is open for public review after publication of the notice of availability in the Federal Register by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. This period is anticipated to begin February 13, 2015 and end March 16, 2015. Written comments may be sent electronically or by traditional mail.
There is already disagreement over the proposed plan. The Audubon Society of Portland says the cormorants are being used as scapegoats while the real reasons for the population decline in salmon and steelheads is not being fully addressed. Bob Sallinger, the local Audubon Society’s conservation director said, “Although it’s been reduced, the level of proposed take is still really historic and horrific.”
Oregon’s The Daily News Online reported on June 13, 2014 corps. spokesperson Diana Fredlund told reporters “About 10 to 15 years ago we had 100 nesting pairs on the island. Those numbers started increasing and now there are about 8,000 nesting pairs.” Fredlund cited the ideal habitat found on the island, located right at the mouth of the Columbia River. Pointing out there were no natural predators, the birds have easy access to fish, she added.
According to the draft EIS, double-crested cormorants from East Sand Island eat, on average, around 11 million juvenile salmon and steelhead protected under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) every year. “We were mandated to bring the fish populations, predominately (those that are) ESA-listed, back up because there have been a lot of declines,” Fredlund said.
The double-crested cormorant is a seabird and is widely distributed, wintering anywhere it is ice-free along both coasts of north America, from as far north as Southern Alaska on the West Coast and as far north as New England on the East Coast. The black, stocky bird is an excellent diver and has to spend long periods out of water to dry its feathers because they are not fully waterproof.
