Smoothing the waters in cormorant clash
A five-step action plan drawn up by EU-funded researchers will help to steer the middle ground in a stand-off between fishermen and conservationists over the future of the cormorant. The cormorant is currently at the centre of a battle between conservationists, who are thrilled that the numbers of this bird species are rising again - giving credit to the conservation methods of recent years, and fishermen, who revile them as rivals for their catch. The birds (Phalacrocorax carbo in Latin) are a common sight in Europe's lakes and rivers; they have colonised inland water areas worldwide and with their sharp bills are voracious hunters of fish, eels and water snakes. The migratory birds breed in northern Europe and the Baltic Sea area, but spend their winters in the Mediterranean. Because of the cormorant's constant movement across borders, attempts to formulate a management strategy to reconcile the conflicting interests of conservationists and fishermen have so far been unsuccessful. 'With the involvement of 25 Member States it is indeed difficult to find a regulation with which all states are satisfied. If only one Member State disagrees, then the plan will not materialise,' explains Vivien Behrens of the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in Leipzig. 'In Europe this is clearly an institutional problem. Who is responsible? Is it the conservation agencies, the fishery authorities or other actors? There are so many different levels involved from the regional and national to the international level, and yet there is no one place for all of these threads to intertwine.' The researchers believe that it is possible to find an acceptable strategy for dealing with the issue. In 2003 the US Fish and Wildlife Service created a plan to deal with the cormorant problem that included such resourceful solutions as scaring without shooting, limiting local damage at commercial fish ponds and strictly monitored reduction of resources. To find a middle way in Europe, researchers have now devised a five-point action plan, which they have published in an article in the journal Environmental Conservation. The first step is to obtain accurate data on the number of cormorants in EU countries, as this figure has not yet been established. Then cormorant numbers and conditions in different EU regions need to be compared. A cost benefit analysis of different management options also has to be carried out along with the creation of a common model of the EU's entire cormorant population. Finally, an institution will need to be established which will be responsible for overseeing a common EU management strategy. The scientists hope that by generating accurate data and setting up a systematic management system the interests of both the fishing industry and conservationists can be reconciled. EU support for the work came from the FRAP ('Development of a procedural framework for action plans to reconcile conflicts between the conservation of large vertebrates and the use of biological resources: fisheries and fish-eating vertebrates as a model case') project, which is funded by the 'Energy, environment and sustainable development' Thematic Programme of the Fifth Framework Programme (FP5).
Countries
Germany