Over the past few weeks we have been inundated with cormorants (think this is what they are).
I have not been there to witness but my sister-in-law said they come in the morning (she said about 200 of them not sure) and start dive bombing and eating fish.
As a side effect there are many cranes and herrons along the shore waiting on them to drive fish into the shallow water. She said she saw a blue herron with a bass in its mouth so big it could not fly off with it.

Any ideas on what to do?

I would start with a shotgun....

Wow! What part of Mississippi are you? My pond is in southern Ms. and I've never seen a cormorant there.

I am in Hinds county.

Talked to my biologist and he has seen same in another pond in the past week.

We have a healthy population of TFS and he said likely due to cold weather some of them have been killed off and they are coming in to feed on them.

Nailed it.

That would be the fastest and most cost effective way to stop this today.

I have never had to deal with them, but I think they may be protected by law. Cannot condone anything illegal.

It is my understanding they are federally protected.

I understand you can get permits. Your other technique is SSS.

You are allowed to harass them without permit, with permit (which depends state to state) you can remove them. If it is temporary issue, I would harass first.

Shotgun cracker shells may work, they fly about 200' then explode.

The Original Shellcracker

In a clients 7/8 ac pond, I did a fish survey this past summer. There were between 1 to 5 cormorants visiting the pond on a daily basis. Roughly 70% of the fish that were caught and re-released into the pond had signs of getting hit by the cormorants, but escaping. There was a total of almost 1,000 fish inspected.

Just think of the added stress and potential for infection on those fish that escaped.

I was at home this week end and witnessed the problem.

I did scare them off with a shotgun.

They stayed gone 10 minutes and were back.

I guess I will try for a few consecutive days and see if that will work.

Also noticed a few sea gulls in the mix.

can you see what kind of fish they are actually eating? You said somthing about dead shad?

Are they eating shad or other fish?

Seagulls usually eat dead or half dead fish...

CGF, instead of scarin em off, leave them breathless!!

"Scaring off" has been mostly successful here. We live on our pond. Even so, the flying gangsters are always nearby.

How successful you are depends greatly on your being on-site at your pond, especially in the morning. They can show up at any time but morning seems to be their favorite (at +- dawn).

Every spring I go through the same routine of blasting them when ever I see them. Eventually they get sick of it and go to other waters nearby. They still check in on occasion to see if the noise has abated.

Wouldn't it be nice if grenades were legal?

No, thanks.

Ah you just need to count right after you pull the pin and not throw too late.

Why in the hell did they wait so long?! Any background on that video?

It was an promotional for a hearing aid company.

Cecil, I'm think I heard that it was a training exercise. No word if it was supposed to go off that soon or not.

Those are the kind of guys that look up a gun barrel to see if it's loaded.

We has a guy like those two when I worked with ordinance in ANG. Always screwing up and fortunately we mostly worked with BDU's (bomb dummy units). We always said though if we went to war we'd have to take him out behind a building and shoot him as he'd get us all killed with real bombs. We missed Desert Storm by 20 minutes. He lived.

I think he was a child of the 60's with fried brain cells. Everyone called him "Doc." No clue why.

"a child of the 60s"?

ROFLMAO!!!

Yup! You know those guys with the red head bands that are dead ringers for Chong of Cheech & Chong.

Hi.
I have had the same problem here.
After trying several methods (it s illegal to kill them here) I ve had best results with scare-eye ballons.
I ve bought 6 of them in 3 colors for my 1 acre pond and fixed them on poles around the shore.
No more cormorants in my pond exterminating my LMB.
Just remember to turnover colors every pair of weeks.

Filippo

Fil, would never have thought of that.

Add a scarecrow and move it once per week, this helped back when my Tilapia were dying. Not a perfect solution but it did help to keep them away, especially after harassing them everyday. I hate um

Tracy

With scare-eye balloons you don t need to harass them.
Just put them on a pole (or a branch) around your shore and you're done.
Just remember to turnover colors every two weeks.
Here it's the only working thing against those pests.
Hope it will work there too.

Filippo,

Welcome to PBF!

Can you post a picture of one of the balloons?

Thanks,

Bill D.

Thank you Bill for your welcome!
Sure I can, here we go


Be sure to buy the ones with the chrome wheels stickers

Thanks Filippo!

Wonder if this would discourage the gbh too?

Cmm

You re welcome Bill! I m happy to help when I can.

CMM unfortunately no way the ballons will help with herons. At least they don t care about them in my pond, but for sure herons are more and more less harmful then cormorants. In my pond herons eat some little fishes near the shore, cormorants swim everywhere catching every kind/size of fish, eating only those they can swallow and leaving biggers dead. I hate cormorants so much....

Thanks for the advice Filippo.
CMM

You re welcome CMM!

IBass,

Cool, good to have another plan for them.


Thanks!

You re welcome. I m glad to be somehow of help to you experts.
We all know what would be the right way to get rid of cormorants...
But as long as it will be illegal balloons are the best alternative.

Here, some pond owners can get a permit to permanently discourage them.

Good to hear!

Wish I could get close enough to permanently discourage them... Them critters can sure see good!

I get an annual permit from TPW and then authorize my hunters/fishemnen as agents. Paperwork is a PIA . They carry a copy of the permit when at the pond and it has done a good job of moving them out.

aeb, the state permit is no longer available. Everything got turned over to the feds.

IIRC, this is the new permit info.
https://www.fws.gov/forms/3-200-13.pdf

Same thing with counting votes in our upcoming election, no longer counted by states. So I was thinking pond but this popped up, senior moment!!

Tracy

Not good! Looked back at some earlier posts and apparently, TPW sent all permit holders a letter. Either I missed it or it fell in a hole. Took a look at the Federal permit and it is a non-starter for me.

X 2

Reverse fish them. Tie the hook and bait deep enough that when they get hooked they drown. It how my grandfather feed his family during the war with ducks. He said its not cool when you get a swan that way but you need to eat.

Can't you destroy critters that are destroying your property?

Legally no Pat. I don’t recommend that anybody break the law. However , if I was raising chickens and a hawk was getting them........

Funny every time cormorants show up I feel the need to "sight in " my 22.......

For me, when I set up a target at the far side of the pond and shooting from the hill is about 300 yds. My 22 mag will need to be adjusted as wind dictates. And sometimes will fall shot of the target and the bullet will hit the water. There is a shooter here that has a really nice rifle to shoot hogs and such, might work well here.

Here in Canada here or at least in Ontario you can if it is damaging your farming practice and costing you money. Big game like deer you need to get permission to harvest them if crop damage is too high.

If you feel threatened by a racoon, fox, coyote, or ground hog you are allowed to take it. You are allowed to have a varmint gun at hand and not locked up as long as it is un loaded. Ammo/clip stored or hidden. All other guns must be locked weather with a trigger lock or in a safe. Ammo must be locked up as well.

Cheers Don.

When I got my permit they quit showing up. They are not that smart so I attributed it good pond management.

I "pellet train" them.....

Bill that's a great idea! Wonder y I didn't think of that
Those critters can eat a lot real quick