. t 
     
    
   
   
    
     Cormoranfs no ihrea‘t 
     
    
   
   
    
     . BY GEOFF HOGAN 
     
    
   
   
    
     Cormorants are in the news again. It was only a year ago that the 
     
     Natural History Society, with support from the Island Nature Trust and 
     
     the P.E.I. Wildlife Federation, requested to the Provincial government 
     
     that a feeding study he conducted on the feeding habits of the double— 
     
     crested cormorant on P.E.I. freshwater ponds. 
     
    

    
     On the one hand were concerned 
     
     fishermen worried that the birds were 
     
     the cause of declining trout catches 
     
     and on the other were well—documented 
     
     studies indicating that cormorants 
     
     are not important trout predators. 
     
     with preliminary results from the 
     
     first field season now available fish— 
     
     ermen should put their fears to rest. 
     
     One hundred and eighty-three cormorants 
     
     were shot on'36 freshwater and estuarine 
     
     ponds across P.E.I. between May and 
     
     October 1985, according to Anne Gallant, 
     
     the University of Acadia graduate bio— 
     
     ology student conducting the research. 
     
     Only 90 of these birds had recognizable 
     
     food in their stomachs amounting coll- 
     
     ectively to less than 10 pounds of fish. 
     
     Trout comprised only 2.8 pounds of this, 
     
     76% of which were under 6 inches.-As 
     
     small trout suffer from a naturally high 
     
     mortality rate from a variety of factors 
     
     many of these fish would never have been 
     
     available to fishermen in any case. 
     
    

    
     No trout or salmon were recovered from 
     
     stomach regurgitation samples collected 
     
     at the breeding colonies. Based upon 
     
     this evidence, plus the fact that many 
     
     of the cormorants on fresh water were 
     
     evidently not there to feed (their stom— 
     
     machs were full of saltwater, non-com— 
     
     mercial fish), the current study adds 
     
     further support to the many earlier 
     
     studies showing that the cormorants are 
     
     not a threat to game fish Species. 
     
    

    
     Why are cormorants increasing and 
     
     what implications does this have? His- 
     
     torically cormorants were very abundant 
     
     in Atlantic Canada but through persecu— 
     
     tion by fishermen believing they threat—‘ 
     
     ened valuable fish stocks their popula- 
     
    

    
     tions (both Great and Double-crested cormorants) were nearly wiped out. 
     
    

    
     By 1920 most migratory birds in Canada and the United States received 
     
    

    
     legal protection, including cormorants. Feeding studies in the 1920's 
     
     . and later refuted the misconception that they were harmful to fishermen's 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     interests. Since then their numbers gradually grew so that what we are 
     
    
   
   
    
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