Subject: [Tweeters] Problem? Ducks & cormorants
Date: Mar 22 22:58:24 2011
From: ray holden - rayleeholden at yahoo.com


Yes many fishermen think of salmon as a commercial commodity that in my opinion
is an idea they sell under the guise of ecology. Fisherpersons seem to
generally claim that what's good for the salmon is good for the environment
which is a main selling point they put forth for draining Capitol Lake here in
Olympia even though there was never a native salmon run in the river to recover.



Mergansers consume thousands of baby salmon and other little fish each so they
are obviously not good for the (their idealized) environment. But then of
course few of the salmon are native salmon. They are produced (introduced) in a
hatchery which in the process creates an "artificial" food supply that supports
a larger duck population. I guess you could say that building hatcheries to
make more salmon is an awfully expensive way to feed ducks but then in my
opinion the ducks are the native creature and the salmon are introduced so the
ducks have at least equal rights to a fair catch. Of course as a birder I may
have my own bias. Haha. To me the mergansers, like the caspian terns, another
bird that is targeted because it's primary diet is fish, have a right to their
place in the environment.


I wonder what the prevailing opinion on mute swans, an introduced species, would
be if they had either a sport or commercial value? I also find it interesting
that nobody goes after the cormorants which are currently feeding here in large
numbers alongside the mergansers.





________________________________
From: Martha Jordan <swanlady at drizzle.com>
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Sent: Tue, March 22, 2011 7:07:20 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] Problem? Ducks & cormorants

Hello tweets,
Today this message arrived in my inbox. He indicates that he considers
this a problem. Perhaps he is a fisherman, perhaps someone concerned about
salmon recovery.
No matter, can anyone out there shed light on the inquiry.

Message: As many of us must be aware, the population of common mergansers is
exploding on all the inland lakes and lower rivers. They are mostly the
only waterfowl I see on the lower-middle rivers now.

Even more disturbing, just this weekend I saw cormorants on the lower S.
Fork Stilly.

Is anyone else worried about these big aggressive diving ducks and is there
anything to be done?

I am such a rookie I don't even know what I don't know....is there anyone in
PAS I can holler at about this problem?


Thanks out there for the help.

Martha Jordan


_______________________________________________
Tweeters mailing list
Tweeters at u.washington.edu
http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters