Cormorant hazing Program hopes to increase salmon and steelhead returns
Jim Robinson fires a pyrotechnic noisemaker over a flock of feeding double-crested cormorants on the Alsea River, while Jim Sehl maneuvers the boat. (Photos by Larry Coonrod)
By Larry Coonrod Of the News-Times
With longtime fishing guide Jim Sehl at the helm, our raiding party quietly slips away from the dock at Taylor's Landing on the Alsea River in Sehl's 21-foot Koffler jet boat. The 75 horsepower Evinrude outboard pushes down river in search of our quarry. Our gunner and spotter, Jim Robinson, stands in the bow, binoculars at the ready.
Time may have grayed Sehl's hair, but the former fighter pilot's vision remains tack sharp. Ten minutes into the trip, he spots three bogeys quarry a 100 yards off the bow. Sure enough, there they are: three double-crested cormorants. But they've spotted us, too, and after a month of pyrotechnic hazing, they recognize the boat and take evasive acton before we get any closer.
Sehl and Robinson, through the 350-member Alsea Sportsmen's Association, are part of a pilot program on the Alsea to haze double-crested cormorants during the spring migration of salmon and steelhead smolts to saltwater.
Double-crested cormorants eat up two pounds of fish per day, the equivalent of 25 smolts. Multiply that by the estimated 200 cormorants on the Alsea over the several weeks smolts spend moving down the estuary, and it equals the potential loss of a few hundred thousand salmon and steelhead smolts.
The Alsea River fish hatchery releases about 120,000 steelhead smolts each year. Naturally spawned chinook and coho salmon smolts are in the river as well. Research using transmitter tags attached to steelhead smolts shows only half the smolts survive to reach the open waters of the bay.
"I don't think we can draw ironclad conclusions, but the fish appear healthy, and we see feeding activity from cormorants and harbor seals in the areas where the tags disappear, so we suspect that is the cause," said ODFW biologist Bob Buckman.
For anglers, 60,000 steelhead smolt represent a potential loss of 2,400 returning adults, based on a 4-percent return rate. And that doesn't count the number of native chinook and coho salmon smolts lost to predation. At an average cost of $1.25 per hatchery steelhead smolt, it is a significant financial loss as well.
Sehl said the cormorants congregate on the Alsea during April and May to intercept the young salmonids.
"Once they get on a school of smolts, they don't leave them," Sehl said. "They'll stay and feed on them for the entire length of the river system until they get to the bay."
Sportsmen's Association Lobbies for Changes
The Alsea Sportsmen's Association also successfully lobbied for ODFW to begin releasing steelhead smolts at multiple locations and times. It hopes that by spreading the young fish out over a greater distance, they will be less susceptible to predators. As an added benefit, Sehl and Robinson say the fish will slow their spawning migration near their release points, leaving fish in the river longer for anglers to catch.
Lethal measures not an Option
"Certain bird groups think we're trying to get the birds to leave, and that is not the case," said Lindsay Adrean, ODFW avian predation coordinator.
"Our goal is to move the birds downriver toward the estuary where you have more saltwater fish, like anchovies or herring and other estuary fish, and get their focus off the salmon smolts."
The state's avian predation program allows only hazing of feeding birds.
"If the birds aren't actively foraging, they might sit up in a tree and roost for hours," Adrean said. "So if you push them out of there, then you may unwittingly encourage them to go forage."
Adrean said there are 2,300 breeding pairs of double-crested cormorants in coastal estuaries and 12,000 pairs on the Columbia River. That number does not include juveniles and other nonbreeding birds. Oregon last month petitioned the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife to join the 28 other states with permission to kill cormorants.
Biologists want the OK to remove up to 10 percent of double-crested cormorants in nesting colonies on the Tillamook, Umpqua and Rogue estuaries.
"Lethal removal would be supplemental to hazing, and we wouldn't necessarily take the full quota," Adrean said. "We'd be focusing on birds seen foraging in areas overlapping with the juvenile salmon."
Lethal removal is unlikely to happen on the Alsea because the cormorants there are not breeding, she said.
Bald eagles and seagulls are cormorants' main natural predator. When eagles attack a nesting colony, adults scatter, giving seagulls an opportunity to swoop in to dine on eggs and chicks.
"As the eagle population continues to grow, we're expecting this might be a natural way to reestablish some balance," Adrean said.
Back on the Alsea, Sehl motors several miles downriver before we spot a group of 75 cormorants feeding below the mouth of Drift Creek. Sehl slows the boat to approach the flock. Robinson mounts a "Screamer Siren" - an inch-long whistling pyrotechnic - onto the barrel of his flare pistol and fires over the flock. Pandemonium ignites as the cormorants quickly forget about lunch and flee downriver to the bay.
"In my opinion, this is the first time we're in an actionable situation. Our hazing of the cormorants will give tangible results we can measure," Sehl said. "In a couple of years, the smolts we're saving today will come back as adults. More adults means more opportunity for our recreational fishery."
Each cormorant sighting is meticulously recorded, including the birds' reaction to the hazing. When the program ends this month, the two men plan on writing a detailed report for ODFW. The pair hopes their efforts can reduce the smolts' out-migration mortality by half.
Decline in Fish Hard Economic Hit
During its glory days, fishing camps and docks once dotted the Alsea estuary. Today, most of the camps are dilapidated shells of their former selves.
Of course, cormorants and seals aren't the only cause of dwindling fish numbers. Mention the state's decision to halt hatchery production of salmon in the late '90s in favor of native coho and chinook, and you'll hear a string of invectives from most locals.
"Back in the coho days, you used to be able to almost walk across the boats out here," Robinson said.
"When there was a decline in harvestable fish, there was a decline in the number of boats, which negatively impacts our economic situation here," Sehl added
Sehl believes the tenfold increase in double-crested cormorants he's seen played a big role in fish declines. He said his boat averaged 300 chinooks a season and 60 winter steelhead in the first 20 years he guided on the Alsea.
"In the last 10 years, the decline has been precipitous," he said. "Now I'm finding we're catching 200 chinooks a season. For the last several years, for me to catch 15 or 20 steelhead would be a very good year."
Volunteers Crucial
The state has hazed cormorants on the Tillamook, Nehalem , and Nestucca estuaries for several years and started programs on the Alsea and Coquille rivers this year. Adrean, the avian predation coordinator, says so many factors contribute to smolt survival that it's hard to measure the effect of hazing. After years of watching the birds gorge on young salmon and steelhead while the number of adult fish returning declined, Sehl and Robinson harbor no doubts.
"I do this on a voluntary basis just because it is the right thing to do," Sehl said.
Adrean said the state has limited funds to support cormorant hazing. In fact, there are no programs on the three estuaries with the largest nesting populations. The state pays a small reimbursement to hazers, which doesn't really cover the cost of pyrotechnics and fuel for an active program.
"We need to find groups that are interested in donating man hours and boats because we just don't have the budget to fully support a project," Adrean said.
Community Support
As we head back to Taylor's Landing, Doug LaSalle, the owner of Drift Creek Landing, hails us from his dock. Robinson and Sehl tell him about the cormorant hazing program.
"It's about damn time they started doing something," LaSalle said. "Their impact on returning fish has greatly reduced the business, not only at this park, but all of the RV parks. I'd say close to 60 percent in the last eight years."
Robinson and Sehl make a concerted effort to explain the hazing program to everyone on the river.
"As of today, the response has been 100 percent in support of these actions. Not even one person that has called or visited me has said anything negative," Sehl said.
Since they starting hazing on April 6, Robinson and Sehl have been on the river six hours a day, seven days a week. They plan to keep it up through May 31.
"We don't want to hurt the birds; we just like to change their diet for a month and a half," Robinson said.
Contact assistant editor Larry Coonrod at 541-265-8571 ext. 211 or larry@newportnewstimes .com.
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