PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A judge has refused to block a plan to shoot more than 10,000 double-crested cormorants in the Columbia River estuary.
The plan was released earlier this year by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It wants to stop cormorants from eating millions of baby salmon.
Conservation groups sought a preliminary injunction. They say hydroelectric dams — not cormorants — are the main threat to salmon. The groups filed suit in April against the Corps, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Wildlife Services agency in the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The Corps said Wildlife Services will manage the killing.
The plan also calls for destroying 26,000 nests on East Sand Island.
The decision came Friday from U.S. District Judge Michael Simon.
In a separate but related project, Fish and Wildlife will take up to 50 double-crested cormorants at the mouth of the Umpqua River.
The collection effort is part of ongoing research to study the diet of double-crested cormorants in estuaries.
Oregon has a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that allows for limited kill of double-crested cormorants, which are protected under the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
Fish and Wildlife also will be doing a project looking at the potential use of low-power hand-held lasers to scatter cormorants from feeding and roosting sites.
Laser-based hazing will be ongoing on a trial basis at several coastal locations.
Exposing the Big Game 
I, along with many other people signed petitions against this. Notice how we were totally ignored.
I signed it too; it’s as though the judges mind was already made up…
You’re right. The objections far out numbered the support, and solid counter points were totally ignored, including viable scientific perspectives. Of course, we know it’s business as usual on the part of special interests.