Brussels, 05/12/2008 (Agence Europe) - With their healthy appetite for fresh fish, cormorants threaten fish stocks and can deprive fishermen of a considerable proportion of their income. On Thursday 4 December, the European Parliament recommended that a cormorant management plan be put in place, the aim being to reduce the birds' negative impact on the fisheries sector.
With each bird eating between 400 and 600 grammes, cormorants catch more than 300,000 tonnes of fish in European waters annually. To put this into context, this is more than the annual aquaculture output from France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Hungary and the Czech Republic combined.
In adopting the report by Heinz Kindermann (PES, Germany) by the overwhelming majority of 558 voted to 7, with 18 abstentions, Parliament calls on the Commission to bring forward a plan for the phased management of cormorant numbers, without compromising the objectives of the directive on the protection of birds and the Natura 2000 programme. MEPs suggest setting up a reliable, annually updated database on the total size and structure of cormorant populations in Europe, as well as their fertility and mortality parameters. The cormorant population in Europe is estimated to be of the order of (at least) 1.7-1.8 million birds. (L.C./transl.rt)