Page 26 - 2009 Lake St. Clair Guide Magazine

Blue Water Anglers Annual Fishing Derby gust, and most birds return to the Great
Lakes the following April.

Anglers have suspected for years that

Cormorants are a part of declining

perch populations. Wildlife officials in

Michigan also believe the Cormorants are

having a devastating effect on the state’s

fishing and tourism industries due to

their aggressive feeding habits. The state

1st Place Brown Trout an estimated 30,000 nests recently. stocks the lakes with brown trout for sport
from Shore, 10.42#, fishing but the birds have been eating far
more fish than the state stocks. Up north,

Steve Laverdure where perch fishing was abundant, you
Cormorants dive from the water's surface could hardly catch one, and now we are

to pursue prey underwater, propelled by seeing more Cormorants around Lake St.

Migrating Cormorant powerful, webbed feet. Feathers absorb Clair!
moisture, helping cor-

Population Eating our Fish morants to stay under State officials want
to thin the Cormorant
water for about 30

Cormorants are large black birds with a seconds. After eating, population by two
healthy appetite for fish. The birds stop Cormorants often thirds. They began to
off each spring during their migration to dry their feathers by shoot adult birds and
their northern Michigan and other Great perching in a distinc- put oil on the birds’
Lake breeding grounds for the summer. tive wing-spreading eggs so they won’t
posture. hatch. The Fish and

In this decade, the Cormorant has become Populations nesting Wildlife Service, which
more numerous on the Great Lakes than on the Great Lakes migrate south via two manages all migra-
at any time in its previously recorded his- routes: some go directly south along the tory birds, including the Double-Crested
tory. Cormorant populations in the Great Mississippi River drainage while others Cormorants, relaxed strict protection of
Lakes have increased from very few nests first travel east to the Atlantic coast and the bird in 2003, issuing a list of rules
in the 70's due to effects of toxic chemi- then south to the Gulf Coast. Southward governing how the bird can be managed
cals like DDT which are now banned, to migration begins around the end of Au- in the United States. Michigan is one of
24 states where lethal methods to control

cormorants is now allowed.

The Belle Isle Bridge is not the Belle Isle Bridge The Fish and Wildlife Service au-

The Island of Belle Isle opened to the public in 1884. thorized local control by approved
state, tribal, and federal agents

In 1889 a wooden bridge to connect the island in 2003 in areas where cormo-
to the City of Detroit was completed. rants were proved to be causing
damage. In Michigan the U.S.

Department of Agriculture APHIS

In 1915, this wooden bridge was destroyed by fire. A temporary office is the agency tasked with
bridge was built, and at the same time the bridge as we have today Cormorant controls. APHIS has
already seen success in some of
opened in 1923. The fire was caused by a cart, which was being their Cormorant control programs.

towed across the bridge, who inadvertently dropped hot coals in a One example is the Les Cheneaux
number of places on the wooden structure which were needed for Islands near Cedarville, MI. Since
Cormorant controls have been
asphalt work on the island. in place they have seen a huge

resurgence of their Perch popula-

Known as the Belle Isle Bridge, it was later renamed tions and a resurgence of anglers
the Douglas MacArthur Bridge in 1942, in honor of traveling to this area.

U.S. Army General MacArthur. The Les Cheneaux Islands project

was one of the first approved

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