Lake Champlain United - Forums

Hi guys, I called my old roommate, a senior official with the US fish and wildlife dept, migratory bird mgmt.. He confirms that a legal challenge forced the department to write a new plan, he said it will take at least 1 year maybe 2 before it will be ready for implementation. Hope we can come up with an interim plan.

Cormorants are about as useful to Fish ,as coyotes are to Deer ! Kill or Wound as many as possible! There must be some kind of Poison to put on these nesting Islands on the "Down Low" of course! If the Fisherman don't do something, by the time our state does the Problem is way to out of control. Don't ask Permission Beg Forgiveness!

So we can now shoot as many as web want? Cool I got 3 12 gauges ready to lay flocks down as they pass.. can’t wait

Curios if any one else saw the flock of over a thousand leave the bay outside of Shelburn sunday morning prior to sunrise? It was stupid how many black birds were there. The flock stretched out almost a mile long. Not cool unless you were out to do some wing shooting.

River Rat we see them everyday its Sickening

While I hate cormorants, I urge all of you to restrain from personally taking the matter into your own hands, because you will become an immediate martyr that will pay the fines and bear the crime and not get much ACTIVE SUPPORT from others. It has been said that every cause needs its martyrs ... but I believe it needs real supporters instead.

You will stand alone! I know a couple of those that tried the same thing up in Henderson Harbor on Lake O. I honestly don't know if they had regrets, but I believe that at least one of them never fished again.

I personally would encourage you to start a committee that will keep written pressure, lots of PICTURES in the news and before the conservation people and maybe even the voters

tamiron wrote:While I hate cormorants, I urge all of you to restrain from personally taking the matter into your own hands, because you will become an immediate martyr that will pay the fines and bear the crime and not get much ACTIVE SUPPORT from others. It has been said that every cause needs its martyrs ... but I believe it needs real supporters instead.

You will stand alone! I know a couple of those that tried the same thing up in Henderson Harbor on Lake O. I honestly don't know if they had regrets, but I believe that at least one of them never fished again.

I personally would encourage you to start a committee that will keep written pressure, lots of PICTURES in the news and before the conservation people and maybe even the voters

Tamiron, as this may work where you Live ! We live in NY and VT. I cant speak as much for Vt. But in NY, if you are not from the City or a Liberal it takes Years to get anything accomplished this way, They don't hear our Problems because its nothing that affects them.

I witnessed the stocking of 150,000 walleye fry Tuesday in the Winooski River and didn't see but was told that another 100,000 were going in Wednesday and the possibilities that by now 25% of them have been eaten by cormorants or that's what the state people that were stocking them told me. Even though they stock later in the day hopefully when cormorants are on their nests they will find them within hours! Firm believer of cormorant control!!

We need to unite, and invest our money and time to fix the issue. There is a bill that has been stuck in committee federal level that would require the Interior Secretary to implement the 2014 policy that was overruled in 2016 in court as not having a legislative backing. If that passes it opens things up. Contact your reps asking them to support and help pass https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-con ... -bill/4429. On top of that we need to take action in a legal manner. Harassing cormorants that are not on a nest is legal. See a bird? Drive towards it. We need to make the brothers less appealing. In the south fish farms use sticks with mylar, scarecrows, and other means to keep birds away. The brothers are covered with dead trees that provide nesting space, work with NY to get a permit to remove that habitat, baron islands with just rocks will not provide the nesting they need. There are legal methods we can use that can help the problem while we wait for action from state and federal agencies.

Keith 4 Brothers is not owned by NY it is owned by Nature conservancy that's the problem.

Unfortunately there success is hindering the entire state and surrounding areas... we have comorants showing up now in numbers down to the southern border.... Funny how they disappear round here

OFF SEASON:

Tamiron, as this may work where you Live ! We live in NY and VT. I cant speak as much for Vt. But in NY, if you are not from the City or a Liberal it takes Years to get anything accomplished this way, They don't hear our Problems because its nothing that affects them.

I lived in NY for 62 years. Nothing worked until the DEC was able to eliminate "some" Birds. The only other thing that worked was that the cormorants so decimated the small mouth population that they were forced to find some place else to feed! I don't know if it has ever recovered to the days of the 1970 - 1980 levels of smallmouth.

I don't have an answer.

What I do have is knowledge that some people in NY took the law into their own hands and paid dearly for it. Initially lots of verbal support from other upset fishermen, but you can't eat words, use words to restore your fishing and hunting rights, and if they were convicted of a federal felony, no longer able to vote, etc.

Yes, I hate cormorants , and they drastically affect my business, but not one dead cormorant is worth having one forum member pay that ridiculous price for killing it and getting caught.

Something has to happen... these birds are flooding our interior lakes as well as river systems as of late. We now have flocks of them on the Conneticut river watershed, where 5 years ago we'd never see them here. Its gonna be tough but we need to stick with it. Mabye I've missed this in past posts, but if there was or is a way for us sportsman to continually pound the state with emails about this issue, eventually something should come of it. Respectfully

Also... we have here in Vermont a "nuisance" snow goose and Canada goose season. I know that snow geese feed by pulling the roots of vegetation up and it decimates crops, Canada geese crap on golf courses and get a bad rap. I say if we could train some of these comorants to deficate on some of the legislatures back 9 we'd have no problem passing a bill to cull a few!

We have them on Memphremagog. They sit on the "lighthouse" off of Strawberry Acres and the light and all the rocks around it are white from their "good will" I once saw a jet skier chase one all around the lake for about 20 minutes. The bird never went higher than 2-3' off the water. First time I've cheered on a jet skier, I think.