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04-28-2008, 01:23 PM
PUBLICATION: National Post
DATE: 2008.03.19
EDITION: National
SECTION: News
PAGE: A2M
Park. ; Map: Jonathon Rivait, National Post / (See hardcopy for Map) ;
BYLINE: Cameron Strandberg
SOURCE: National Post
WORD COUNT: 639
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Parks Canada to cull birds in Point Pelee; 'A Disgusting Place'
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Middle Island, sitting in Lake Erie in Point Pelee National Park, has the distinction of being the southernmost point of land in Canada.
But to the locals it is more infamous for the vomiting, foul-smelling, double-crested cormorants that infest the place and, according to Parks Canada, are turning the island into a dead zone. "They've basically taken over," Vincent Tiessen, a realtor with Century 21 for Point Pelee, said of the birds.
Such is their number that Parks Canada has decided to cull the 5,000 birds on the island and reduce them to 400-500 using noise-suppression rifles with fitted scopes. The planned killing of the cormorants -- green-eyed and resembling a blacker and larger seagull -- has some residents applauding, but other nature protection agencies crying slaughter. "It's just a disgusting place," said Mr. Tiessen of Middle Island. He said boats that travel near the 17-hectare island are driven away by a "chicken-coop" smell. Bird watchers who venture onto the island are set back by the cormorants' self-defence regurgitation of fish offal.
"I don't know any locals who don't want those birds out. It's only groups who don't live here who are making noise about the cull," he said.
"They've destroyed that island and they're all over other islands, too," said Jim Bonner, a local fisherman who charters and guides fishing boats in Lake Erie. "Kill 'em all."
He said that with some shotguns and a bunch of his friends, he could have Middle Island cleared out in a day.
Stephen Woodley, chief ecosystem scientist for Parks Canada, said the cormorant population was "hyper-abundant."
"If you pan the skylines of Middle Island, the main thing you can see is the grey skeletons of trees," he said.
He said that between 1995 and 2006, the large numbers of birds and their mass amounts of acidic excrement and fish regurgitation had over-stressed the island and killed 40% of its vegetation and had also seriously altered the island's soil chemistry, leading to a proliferation of such weeds as garlic-mustard. Mr. Woodley said that Middle Island housed the Carolinian ecosystem, home to species rare to Canada such as the red mulberry tree, the Kentucky Coffee tree and 10% of Canada's water snake population.
"These cormorants will just flatten and kill all that. You'll be left with a toxic mass of dirt and bird waste," he said.
Mr. Woodley said one reason for their overabundance was an increase in catfish farms around the American south that had made for easier avian migration. Cormorants who used to die searching for food over the Gulf of Mexico now just hang out at Mississippi catfish farms for the winter.
Also, the North American zebra mussel explosion of the past two decades has killed off algae and seaweeds in Lake Erie, leading to more transparent water. Fish became easier to see and cormorants who used to starve were able to spot food much easier and survive longer. The Parks Canada killing is set to begin sometime in April when the cormorants return from their southern migration.
AnnaMaria Valastro, a campaigner with the Peaceful Parks Coalition, said the Middle Island cormorants were merely a part of the natural cycle of nature and were similar to birds like the blue-footed bobby of the Galapagos, which lives on top of avian guano that can pile 50-metres deep.
Ms. Valastro added the coalition had recently launched a campaign to convince birdwatchers to boycott Point Pelee National Park over the cull. She said she believed local fishing interests had conspired with Parks Canada to kill the cormorants. "There's no ecological reason for this cull. It's just various government agencies working for the anglers," she said.
A main cormorant food source is fish such as the round gobie and alewifes, which are also food sources for such larger fish as walleye and salmon. Ms. Valastro said that if the cormorants were gone, there would be more walleye and salmon, a fish popular with local sport anglers in Lake Erie.
DATE: 2008.03.19
EDITION: National
SECTION: News
PAGE: A2M
Park. ; Map: Jonathon Rivait, National Post / (See hardcopy for Map) ;
BYLINE: Cameron Strandberg
SOURCE: National Post
WORD COUNT: 639
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Parks Canada to cull birds in Point Pelee; 'A Disgusting Place'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Middle Island, sitting in Lake Erie in Point Pelee National Park, has the distinction of being the southernmost point of land in Canada.
But to the locals it is more infamous for the vomiting, foul-smelling, double-crested cormorants that infest the place and, according to Parks Canada, are turning the island into a dead zone. "They've basically taken over," Vincent Tiessen, a realtor with Century 21 for Point Pelee, said of the birds.
Such is their number that Parks Canada has decided to cull the 5,000 birds on the island and reduce them to 400-500 using noise-suppression rifles with fitted scopes. The planned killing of the cormorants -- green-eyed and resembling a blacker and larger seagull -- has some residents applauding, but other nature protection agencies crying slaughter. "It's just a disgusting place," said Mr. Tiessen of Middle Island. He said boats that travel near the 17-hectare island are driven away by a "chicken-coop" smell. Bird watchers who venture onto the island are set back by the cormorants' self-defence regurgitation of fish offal.
"I don't know any locals who don't want those birds out. It's only groups who don't live here who are making noise about the cull," he said.
"They've destroyed that island and they're all over other islands, too," said Jim Bonner, a local fisherman who charters and guides fishing boats in Lake Erie. "Kill 'em all."
He said that with some shotguns and a bunch of his friends, he could have Middle Island cleared out in a day.
Stephen Woodley, chief ecosystem scientist for Parks Canada, said the cormorant population was "hyper-abundant."
"If you pan the skylines of Middle Island, the main thing you can see is the grey skeletons of trees," he said.
He said that between 1995 and 2006, the large numbers of birds and their mass amounts of acidic excrement and fish regurgitation had over-stressed the island and killed 40% of its vegetation and had also seriously altered the island's soil chemistry, leading to a proliferation of such weeds as garlic-mustard. Mr. Woodley said that Middle Island housed the Carolinian ecosystem, home to species rare to Canada such as the red mulberry tree, the Kentucky Coffee tree and 10% of Canada's water snake population.
"These cormorants will just flatten and kill all that. You'll be left with a toxic mass of dirt and bird waste," he said.
Mr. Woodley said one reason for their overabundance was an increase in catfish farms around the American south that had made for easier avian migration. Cormorants who used to die searching for food over the Gulf of Mexico now just hang out at Mississippi catfish farms for the winter.
Also, the North American zebra mussel explosion of the past two decades has killed off algae and seaweeds in Lake Erie, leading to more transparent water. Fish became easier to see and cormorants who used to starve were able to spot food much easier and survive longer. The Parks Canada killing is set to begin sometime in April when the cormorants return from their southern migration.
AnnaMaria Valastro, a campaigner with the Peaceful Parks Coalition, said the Middle Island cormorants were merely a part of the natural cycle of nature and were similar to birds like the blue-footed bobby of the Galapagos, which lives on top of avian guano that can pile 50-metres deep.
Ms. Valastro added the coalition had recently launched a campaign to convince birdwatchers to boycott Point Pelee National Park over the cull. She said she believed local fishing interests had conspired with Parks Canada to kill the cormorants. "There's no ecological reason for this cull. It's just various government agencies working for the anglers," she said.
A main cormorant food source is fish such as the round gobie and alewifes, which are also food sources for such larger fish as walleye and salmon. Ms. Valastro said that if the cormorants were gone, there would be more walleye and salmon, a fish popular with local sport anglers in Lake Erie.