Historic Populations of the Double-crested Cormorant(Phalacrocorax auritus): Implications for Conservationand Management in the 21stCentury

In North America, the Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus) is currently abundant, widely distributed across five broad geographic regions, and often perceived as overabundant. In many U.S. states and Canadian provinces, policy makers are pressured to significantly reduce cormorant numbers, primarily to minimize conflicts between cormorants and fish resources. Concurrently, large-scale conservation plans recently developed for birds in the Americas depart from the traditional narrow focus on threatened and endangered species to encompass broader and more representative goals (e.g., Partners in Flight’s objective to ‘keep common birds common’).

LINDA R. WIRES AND FRANCESCA J. CUTHBERT, Waterbirds 29(1): 9-37, 2006