The American Ornithologists' Union, the organization upon which so many
readers of this list rely for such earth-shakingly significant issues
such as whether to capitalize English names of birds, also does a lot of
important scientific work, including on conservation through its
committees. The AOU says "[t]he role of the Committee in avian
conservation is to provide objective, independent review of science
relevant to critical, and often controversial, issues." One committee
report treats the US Fish and Wildlife Service's plans to "manage"
double-crested cormorants. The local incarnation of this plan involves
the shooting of cormorants off their nests in Ohio over the past two
years, and for any number of years to come, in partnership with the Ohio
Division of Wildlife and the US Department of Agriculture's "Wildlife
Services" division, until recently called "Animal Damage Control."
The AOU's report on cormorants, along with others on grassland birds,
red-cockaded woodpeckers, and the California population of the spotted
owl, are at http://www.aou.org:80/committees/conservation.php3 .
The AOU Committee, which I need hardly say is not one of the "animal
rights groups" cited by Ohio's cormorant-control advocates, summarizes
its findings on the Federal plans on cormorants as follows:
"1) the scientific evidence supporting the proposed action is weak;
2) the analysis of the data is simplistic;
3) the management plan proposed by USFWS is inadequate and has a poorly
evaluated potential to be effective;
4) the consequences of the proposed action on the cormorants are
unknown, and appear to be punitive instead of mitigatory;
5) the assessment of success is unclear; in the DEIS, success is based
on public perception and not on scientific results. The FEIS is not
clear on how success will be assessed; and
6) there is no adequate mechanism for monitoring the population effects
of the plan, nor for deciding when to terminate management actions."
(pp. 9-10).
It further concludes:
"...we find that (a) there is no good evidence presented in the FEIS
that cormorants cause significant fisheries problems except at
aquaculture and hatchery sites; (b) the solutions proposed, primarily
increased take, would likely be ineffective at aquaculture and
hatchery sites yet potentially destructive to continental cormorant
populations; (c) how ‘success’ of a control program would be defined is
unclear; and (d) there is no monitoring program in place or proposed
that could evaluate success, or detect effects on continental cormorant
populations,. Consequently, it appears that what the USFWS plans to do
constitutes persecution of a bird species rather than a solution to the
real problems of declining fisheries and depredation
at aquaculture and hatchery sites." (p. 21).
Ohio's lethal controls are claimed not to be motivated by any effect on
the local fishery (although support from fishers has been eagerly
accepted), but only by the need to protect colonies of other nesting
birds and the associated vegetation. The AOU report overall gives short
shrift to this justification, but does say:
"Other concerns associated with Double-crested Cormorants
addressed by the FEIS were not supported by scientific evidence, or at
most showed that the impact would be localized to the immediate sites of
colonies or roosts . This included impacts to other birds, vegetation,
water quality, and federally listed species." (pp. 15-16).
Readers who don't like cormorants, and who agree with overheated media
descriptions of a "winged black plague," may prefer not to disturb their
prejudices, but the opportunity is hereby offered.
Bill Whan
Columbus
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