Cormorants

[buzzbaiter]

Mergansers can do a hurtin' on fish pops in rivers & streams as they hunt in packs. I've seen them on some very small trout streams. I once spooked a bunch and one of them actually regurgitated its last few meals when it saw me (this happens to me on some blind dates too. lol) any how the pic is below. It was two white suckers and a 4" wild brown. This is one mergansers meals in one hour or less of feeding. Multiple this by thousands of birds times hundreds of days of feeding and u can see how they could put a serious dent in fish pops. IDC about the suckers but the trout? That's another issue entirely. I've also seen them on the Raritan(main & both branches), Delaware and Paulinskill.



I've seen cormorants at Merrill staring down at me from the standing timber but never seen them feeding. That reservoir is chock full of fish so they don't seem to be bothering the fish there.

[Almaink]

Cormorants have ruined Colonial Lake in Lawrenceville too. All year long maybe 5 or 6 birds live there, but once the stocking starts they fly in from the Delaware River in droves to gorge on trout and whatever else they can catch.

[Eskimo]

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[buzzbaiter]

Cool pics! Yellow perch are schoolers(even more so as juveniles) so it makes sense they can gobble up a bunch all at once. Most predatory gamefish like bass, pickerel, trout tend to be solitary feeders which may help them survive being eaten by birds en masse.

[Eskimo]

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Those scoundrels like to eat Pike, too!

[Ol Pedro]

Santee Lakes in San Diego has Cormorant problems They tried boomers, put in Catfish instead of Trout , even larger Trout with limited success. Finally they got a kill permit and that stopped it for a while.

[Bassload]

Originally Posted by acabtp

uh, nothing, they are wild birds. you going to shoot all the bald eagles who eat stocked trout or trophy smallies too?

is this a serious thread?

This is a very serious problem! Look it up. I guess you think we should do nothing about invasive Asian carp in Ohio? Sometimes action is needed to keep the balance. FYI the fish have always been here the Cormorants haven't always been in NJ. They are as bad to fish as the feral hogs are to crops. Great pics from Eskimo posts.

[dfish28]

I love freshwater but as far as cormorants go... I'd love to see all there heads blown off: what good are these invasive species doing? I remember seeing them in Florida years ago and hearing the same whisper... Blow there heads off...!!!
If a bald eagle could swim underwater it would most likely be fairing a lot better, look at these black devils that dive down and chow up..I'm just sayin...survival of the fittest may have to include eliminating
Certain pests!!

[Mjh609]

Wow, that last post sounds incredibly unintelligent. Cormorants are NOT invasive. They are a native species and you guys are on here crying about them eating non native bass and trout? Get a freaking clue.

[dfish28]

in·va·sive
inˈvāsiv/
adjective
1.
(especially of plants or a disease) tending to spread prolifically and undesirably or harmfully.


I consider them highly undesirable...