Accused of diminishing game fish populations and damaging island
vegetation, the unloved black birds are the subject of a bill
before Congress. Double-crested cormorants have been shot at
Lake Waconia for the past four years, part of an ongoing effort
to limit damage to a private island. But now they're under the
gun on another front. As described by Waconia Mayor Jim Nash,
fishing in the lake isn't what is used to be. The business that
fishermen bring to town is down, posing an economic hardship.
The problem, according to Nash, is the cormorants that nest on
an island in the lake. There is suspicion that the birds are
eating game fish, but surely, he believes, they are eating the
small fish that game fish would eat. Thus deprived, game fish
exist in smaller numbers. Solution: Get rid of the birds.
Shooting the birds was already the solution to another problem:
Cormorants, herons and egrets nesting on the island are killing
vegetation with their waste. The owner of the island would like
to preserve its natura