Authority grants permit to hunt 180 cormorants to study their behavior

The Environmental Board has issued a permit to hunt 180 cormorants on the Pärnu River to study the birds' feeding habits. The Estonian Ornithological Society disapproves.
In addition to oiling cormorant eggs and scaring the birds with lasers, the Environmental Board will allow 180 specimens to be shot over the lower reaches of the Pärnu River this spring.
"One of the aims of granting this permit is to see what the birds have in their stomachs, what they eat living on the Pärnu River," said Tarvo Roose, head of the nature conservation organization at the Environmental Board.
The Estonian Marine Institute carried out its cormorant feeding habits study in April.
"We are still investigating how many spawning fish, salmon smolts and young sea trout are being lost. If these losses are disproportionately high due to these birds, then we need to seriously consider whether stocking fish in this manner is sensible," explained Timo Arula, associate professor of marine systems at the institute.
The nutritional study will take place over three years, and Arula believes that conclusions can be drawn from it at the earliest by next spring. The study involves lethal deterrence conducted by the Gulf of Riga Fisheries Community in cooperation with local hunters.
"Finland, Denmark and Åland are already doing this, especially during the spring period before the breeding season. If we look at the fact that there are 41,000 pairs in Estonia, then 37 percent of them are in Pärnu County," said Esta Tamm, head of the Gulf of Riga Fisheries Community NGO.
Üllar Meriste, a nature observer who has been monitoring cormorants for over 20 years, said that Estonia is like a cormorant incubator and that shooting cormorants is justified.
"Otherwise, the number of cormorants will rapidly increase as it has practically done by 8,000 breeding pairs in a year, and this is very concerning," Meriste stated.
The Estonian Ornithological Society is not pleased with the hunting of birds. "In our opinion, non-lethal deterrence is sufficient to scare them away. Cormorants are shy of humans, and nowadays, nutritional studies can also be conducted via DNA analysis from droppings and feces. We have expressed this to the Environmental Board both in meetings and in written feedback on the draft permit, but there seems to be no real desire on the part of the Environmental Board to consider this or make a deliberative decision," said the society's leader, Kaarel Võhandu.
"Actually, obtaining that DNA or genetic material from droppings and feces is very difficult. And the samples that are now taken from the stomachs of the shot cormorants are also preserved for possible future DNA studies," Tarvo Roose explained.
The Environmental Board says that studying the DNA from excrement is significantly more expensive and complicated than examining the contents of the birds' stomachs.
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Editor: Merili Nael, Marcus Turovski