EALING: The federal government has plans to kill nearly 11,000 double crested cormorants on a small Oregon island over four years in an effort to save embattled salmon.
Army Corps released the final Environment Impact Statement (EIS) on February 6, on Friday, which revealed information about dropping population of cormorants in East Sand Island of Oregon.
The plan will not be implemented immediately but it is in wait of a final decision, then the officials of the state will start hunting birds and begin pouring oil on nests; this method will be used to stop the chicks from being hatched.
A spokesperson of the Army Corps, Diana Fredlund, stated that the decision of killing of 11,000 birds is a hard decision but it will prevent the killing of 18,000 cormorants by 2018.
Fredlund stated, “We are trying to balance the salmon and steelhead versus the birds. It’s very difficult to find the right answer and so it’s taken us a long time. We’ve had a lot of experts working on it.”
The corps thought of other options, like hazing the cormorants so they shift to some other place.
But Fredlund believes this solution will only move the trouble to another place.
When in 2014 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released a Biological Opinion, after then the government thought to kill the birds, which stated the reduction of bird’s population from13, 000 living couples to less than 6, 000 till 2018.
Government officials stated that these birds feed on young salmons which makes a threat to fish’s population.
According to Endangered Species Act, young steelhead and salmon have been listed as endangered species. But according to Audubon Society, the main cause of risk to the population of Oregon region’s salmon is not the rising population of birds but it is due to its loss of natural habitat.
