The Enemy is Us

RoxReview.com
February 25, 2009

An article in the March edition of "Natural History" discusses the plight of the cormorant, a black pelagic bird with a long neck that can often be seen diving for fish or standing on an island or pier with wings outstretched to dry its feathers.Cormorants were once very numerous in North America, but hunting, pollution, and attempts at extermination by fishermen reduced their numbers to not even a shadow of their former numbers.

Let's establish right away that cormorants are not the most popular bird in the world. As suggested already, people who depend on fishing for their livelihood kill cormorants wherever and whenever possible, thinking mistakenly that cormorants are responsible for depleted fish stocks.

That cormorants even exist is probably a bit of a miracle. As if all the other issues were not enough, cormorants were on the long list of victims of DDT, which made eggshells thin and unable to stand up to the weight of nesting parents.

The federal government became sufficiently concerned to protect cormorants. It is now illegal to kill them or disturb their nests, although the government can make exceptions in special cases.

At the same time, the resurgence in numbers has been cause for concern in both the fishing community and other communities of people who ought to know better.

The article cites the case of an environmentalist who wanted to have cormorants killed because they nest on a formerly forested island. The trees on the island have been denuded and killed because of acidic cormorant droppings.

If we stop for a moment and consider all the issues that relegate cormorants to second class birds, cormorants are one of many species that dine on fish.

Pelicans, to which cormorants are distant relatives, also dine on fish, as do many gulls, eagles, hawks, osprey, herons, egrets, and those cute little Atlantic puffins. There are no movements to wipe out those species.

To the list of birds can be added many marine creatures: dolphins, sharks, porpoises, killer whales, seals, and other creatures.

And then, of course, there are humans.

It is the height of irony that humans have singled out cormorants as a cause of depleted fish stocks. It is humans who have taken factory fishing to the ultimate level, and it is human predation that is responsible for dwindling numbers of Atlantic Cod and other marine species that end up between buns sold at fast food restaurants.

And it is human over-population that is responsible for increased fishing, and truth be known, a very grim outlook for the future since human population continues to grow.

The lowly cormorant, it seems, is a scapegoat. It is not the prettiest bird by human standards. Even gulls get better press, and gulls are obnoxious creatures if their habits are known.

But cormorants are interesting to watch, if anyone takes the time. They dive into the water to grab their prey, using their powerful legs and webbed feet to propel them through the water.

They emerge yards from where they dove into the water to grab some air before diving again. Their dives are not always profitable. Like all predators, sometimes their meal escapes.

While drying their wings, they almost look like heraldic eagles, wings outstretched in the sunlight. If they had a heraldic shield on their chests and clutched arrows and olive branches in their feet, a shorter neck and beak, the resemblance would be uncanny.

When the last fish disappears from the oceans, cormorants will be victims, not murderers.

As the late Walt Kelly depicted his cartoon character Pogo saying, "We have met the enemy and he is us."