MORE PRESSURE ON PREDATORY BIRDS

Trust wants twice as many licensed cormorant shootings

THE fight against cormorant predation has taken another step forward with the launch of a new website and a letter sent to government demanding more is done to control their numbers.

Angling Trust chiefs sent the letter – outlining the sport’s concerns for fish stocks – to Environment Minister George Eustice and demanded that the government doubles the number of cormorants licensed to be shot in England. Pressure from angling organisations and fishing businesses saw a previous government limit on cormorants licensed to be shot of 2,000, with a temporary increase to 3,000.

But now the Trust believes an annual limit of 6,000 per year is needed. “UK anglers would like to see governments in England, Wales and Scotland protect threatened fish stocks by allowing fishery managers greater freedom to control cormorants and goosanders, the population of which would not be at all endangered by our sensible proposals,” said Angling Trust Chief Executive, Mark Lloyd.

The latest action coincides with the launch of the website Cormorant Watch 2, which allows visitors to record sightings of cormorants, goosanders and mergansers, and where they roost.

More than 120,000 sightings were recorded when the first Cormorant Watch was launched in 2012. This helped make the case for the introduction of AreaBased Licences (ABLs) for the lethal control of birds, which have reduced bureaucracy and costs for hard-pressed fishery managers and angling clubs.