« Indiana Decisions - Ft. Wayne paper reports today in Airport Authority emergency transfer | Main | Indiana Decisions - 7th Circuit posts one (so far) today »

Thursday, September 23, 2004

Environment - Cormorant comeback: Too much of a good thing?

"Protected bird makes a comeback: But some see cormorant as more of a nuisance," is the headline to this story today in the Evansville CourierPress. Some quotes:

When Mark Pochon arrived at the Hovey Lake Fish and Wildlife Area 18 years ago as property manager, the only double-crested cormorants were the ones pictured in the refuge office's bird books.

The hook-billed predatory waterfowl had once been prevalent throughout North America, but like the bald eagle, the bird was nearly decimated by the use of the pesticide DDT. By the early 1970s, it was considered extinct in Indiana and endangered in most other states.

Environmentalists came to its rescue, and thanks to a combination of events, including an amendment to the federal 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the double-crested cormorant won the protection of the federal government. Now, Pochon arrives in the morning at Hovey Lake in Posey County to find between 800 to 1,000 of the slender-beaked black birds submerged in the water "like submarines" with their snake-like long necks sticking up like periscopes. By mid-October, he expects another 4,000 to 5,000 to arrive at Hovey Lake during their annual migratory stopover from the North. "They've made a fantastic comeback," said Pochon. At an estimated 2 million and growing at a rate of almost 8 percent a year, there's little doubt they've made a comeback. Some say they've come back with a vengeance. * * *

Lewis and other wildlife officials fear the double-crested cormorant will soon join the ranks of other once-precious wildlife that are now perceived by the public as pests. On that list is the Canadian goose and the white tail deer, two animals that had come close to extinction in North America, only to be brought back with such vigor that they now are seen as a nuisance by some. Geese are a subject of aggravation for their prolific excrement and the deer for eating shrubs in suburbia and darting into highway traffic during mating season. Especially vulnerable, Lewis said, are the double-crested cormorants because they're, well, ugly.

The cormorant story caught my attention because of this headline last weekend in the Chicago Tribune: "Goose got the blame, but it was rare bird plane hit." The Trib story reported:
The bird may have looked like a goose to the pilots, but what flew into a jet engine over Chicago was a double-crested cormorant, a bird rarely involved in midair collisions with airplanes.

Until 1994, cormorants, found from Alaska to the Bahamas, were federally listed as an endangered species. Their numbers have rebounded--so much so, some fishermen now consider them a nuisance.

And perhaps pilots should, too.

At a briefing Friday by a wildlife expert, American Airlines officials were told cormorants have a particularly dense body with the potential to do as much damage to an airline engine as a Canada goose, which can be more than triple the weight of a 5-pound cormorant. * * *

"Cormorants are flocking birds and usually the planes hit more than one," Dolbeer said. "Thank God both engines did not ingest birds in the Chicago incident."

Collisions reported to the FAA between aircraft and cormorants are less common than encounters with other birds. Only 34 incidents have been reported since 1990 nationwide and none occurred in Illinois.

By comparison, 190 American kestrels, 151 gulls and 72 Canada geese have been struck by planes in Illinois since 1994, FAA records show.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 23, 2004 07:23 AM
Posted to Environmental Issues