Environmental experts and researchers from all Baltic Sea countries, United Kingdom and the European Commission participated in the The Baltic Sea Cormorant Symposium at the Finnish Environment Institute SYKE in Helsinki, 26-28 January 2010. The participants discussed from various perspectives the cormorants of the Baltic Sea, the damages caused by them and the possible means to reduce the damages.
The symposium suggested in its resolution that a working group for cormorant issues be established within the HELCOM (the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission). The working group would coordinate the cormorant research in the Baltic region as well as the damage prevention measures and the protection measures.
The three-day symposium was organized by the Finnish Environment Institute, the Finnish Ministry of the Environment and the Novia University of Applied Sciences. One of the main objectives of the symposium was to find solutions that would reduce the damage made by cormorants to fisheries and inhabitants of the coastal region.
Baltic Sea is the European cormorant hot spot
The nesting cormorant population of the Baltic Sea is estimated to amount to some 175000 pairs. The growth of the cormorant population has ceased in the southern Baltic Sea, at the coasts of Denmark, Germany and Sweden. However, the nesting population is still growing in the central and northern parts of the region, e.g. at the coasts of Estonia and Finland. The Baltic Sea is one of the most significant nesting region of cormorants, and the number of nesting cormorants in the region is higher than the number of wintering ones.
In old nesting colonies, the number of cormorant pairs is not expected to grow significantly, but new colonies will probably be established. The growth of cormorant colonies is limited by the availability of fish food and by the increasing nestling predation by white-tailed eagles.
In the Baltic Sea, cormorants have been observed to predate on the most readily available fish species, in the Gulf of Finland mostly ruffe, perch, stickleback, Baltic herring and roach, in the Archipelago Sea mostly cyprinids, perch, ruffe, and zander. Cormorants can easily adapt to various kinds of fish food, depending on the supply.
Fishermen feel cormorants are a nuisance
Cormorants are a nuisance to fisheries and coastal inhabitants around the Baltic Sea. In Finland, about one half of the approximately 1000 professional fishermen feel that cormorants disturb the fishing activities by reducing the catch and by damaging fishing equipment and fishes. The problems are particularly serious along the Gulf of Finland and in the Archipelago Sea. The actual losses to fisheries have not been properly estimated, but fishermen say that grey seals cause even more damage.
People who live along the coasts around the year or during vacations, as well as owners of archipelago forests, feel that cormorants destroy the nature of their nesting islands. Trees die and rocks turn white from cormorant excrements. The recreational value of the nesting islands is lost as they are unsuitable for recreation even beyond the nesting season.
Even if the species is strictly protected within the EU, some 20 000 cormorants are annually killed in order to reduce the damages. In some areas, illegal destruction of cormorants and their nests has become a common phenomenon. Cormorants are also disturbed in order to hamper the nesting or the founding of new colonies. It is not sufficiently known how these legal and illegal measures influence the growth of the cormorant population or the volume of damages. Several countries around the Baltic Sea are now making management plans for the cormorant population.
More information
Mr Timo Asanti, chief inspector, Finnish Environment Institute, phone
+358 40 740 1597, firstname.lastname@ymparisto.fi
Mr Mikael Kilpi, lecturer, Novia University of Apåplied Sciences, phone +358 44 799 8401
Mr Riku Lumiaro, information officer, Finnish Environment Institute, phone +358 40 509 8654, firstname.lastname@ymparisto.fi
