Cormorants & Goosanders

The cormorant is an apex predator, unmatched in nature, and is unquestionably one of the biggest threats to the health of our inland fish populations, with there being hardly a country in the world that accepts it as an acceptable coexistent without robust management.

Cormorant numbers in the UK have increased from 2,000 in the 1980s to a current over-wintering population of more than 62,000, and with each bird requiring at least one pound of fish every day, the level of conflict is immense.

This burgeoning population, now over-wintering here in the UK, is mainly made up of the European sub-species Phalacrocorax carbosinensis, which prefer living and hunting inland in the freshwater of our rivers, streams and lakes.