Cormorant control

rodkayak

Well-Known Member
A lawyer friend has asked me for some advice, his club fishery is being Shag*ed by Shags & Cormorants.
Being in the profession that he is in he cannot just, "Shoot, shovel & shut up ".
Does anyone know how he can LEGALLY get a licence to control them ? We would very much appreciate your help.
 
yes you can get a special licence to shoot cormorants but the club will need evidence that they are causing a problem, not just a say so.

... and after all other methods have been exhausted
 
In Scotland we would need to apply to the Scottish Executive to be granted a license for Cormorants, Seals, Herons ect.

Once you have jumped through all the correct hoops, provided evidence that they are a financial drain to your business and also proved that scare cannons, scarecrows, flashing lights and regular patrols dont work and are lucky enough to gain approval then dont expect to be allowed to shoot more than a half dozen.

The thing is, they dont specify which 6 you can shoot :D
 
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The thing is, they dont specify which 6 you can shoot :D

My experience as well;), our licence was from English Nature though.

We found 17HMR was best, but whatever you use it can be a complete bugger to work out a safe shot, they are either on the water or roosting on something high. We got around it by providing a 3 foot high roost on a small island, then used a high seat from the side of the lake, the height of the roost meant that misses/thru &thrus went into the earth bank opposite rather than hitting the water.
 
Shooting as a guest on a driven pheasant shoot near Southport a few years ago, on the third drive of the day the gun on my right hand side shot a beautifull left and right on 2 cormorants and no one batted an eye lid or said anything so at the end of the day I said to the shoot captain why did no one say anything and his reply was that the chap owned a fishery 2 fields behind the line and the 2 cormorants were going in that direction and he had a licence to cull 2 cormorants job done.
 
Shooting as a guest on a driven pheasant shoot near Southport a few years ago, on the third drive of the day the gun on my right hand side shot a beautifull left and right on 2 cormorants and no one batted an eye lid or said anything so at the end of the day I said to the shoot captain why did no one say anything and his reply was that the chap owned a fishery 2 fields behind the line and the 2 cormorants were going in that direction and he had a licence to cull 2 cormorants job done.

can't beat it:thumb:
 
yes apply to defra for licence and as long as you can prove you have them on your water you will get a licence to shoot them as it is now proven that they are a problem all fisheries in my patch who have applied and shown they have them on water have got licence to shoot them

webby
 
You can apply for alicence with Natural England, see link below:

Natural England - Fish-eating birds

However, I would adviseyou first to get in touch with your local Environment AgencyFisheries Team. They can help with advice on preventing predation (egfish refuges). The licence from NE will only be for a very smallnumber of birds. Culling at such low levels does not work, sincethere are 1000s of cormorants that will take the place of the culledbirds.


Cheers,

Peri
 
I remember reading some years ago that these cormorants are not the British species of shore/saltwater cormorants but a species of european freshwater cormorants that had migrated over from Holland/Germany, and we all know what should happen to foreign invasive species, iradication. A local fishery in the midlands applied to cull these birds and were told that they could only cull 1% of the population per annum---Crackers!!!
 
Well on Chew last year counted 250+, was common place to see the Bristol Water seal of approval on Trout, a cormarants bill scar on fish.

I see dozeens on route down to Taunton daily and they have destroyed the fishing in the Cotswold Water park.

There ought to be an erradication programme AKA grey squirrels.

D
 
yes i agrea with cyres i work in fisheries and i ahve seen the nos build up and up in last 10yrs but like i said the local fisheries that have got licences to shoot them have made a dent in nos up too now


webby
 
It is never easy to obtain licences to deal with avaian predators. Buzzards, well nigh on impossible, Cormorants, a bit easier but in my experience a long drawn out affair to get permission to shoot one or two!! All in all a waste of time.
When I was a lad we got paid a bounty for shooting cormorants, 2/6d per top beak taken into the local harbourmaster, how times change!!
 
believe me its not as hard as people think as defra now recognise cormorants as a problem on fisheries and its not just 1 or 2 ones in my area had licence for 15 10 and 8 and you can always be a bad counter
 
How would you stand shooting them with a rifle, can you use lead? I have been asked to shoot canadas on fields (in England)and a rifle would be best in this situation but don't know if lead is legal from a rifle.
 
to be honest you may find that you will only be able to get a shoot to scare licience at first, there will be numorous meetings with Natrual England at the lakes before hand and evidence will have to be collected by your friend to present to them., they will then issue your type of licience dependent on how serious the problem is. if he gets a shoot to scare make sure he gets someone whos a really bad shot to do it for him:lol: the shooter or shooters will have to be named on the licience as well.
 
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