-->“This operation represents an extreme militarization of ‘wildlife management;’
Cormorants do not need to be treated like terrorists, simply because they eat fish.”

Jeff Ruch,
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility


Music: Barrel Of A Gun



First, we blamed and killed many sea lions
For eating ‘our fish’ in the Columbia River
Now, we are blaming birds that also eat fish
Thousands of slaughtered birds, we’ll deliver

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has a new plan
To save ‘our’ rapidly vanishing trout and salmon
“We will kill over 16,000 fish-eating Cormorants,
So we can save some trout and salmon, for Man.”

Let’s not worry too much that we’ve now over-fished,
Let’s not worry too much, that our dams kill these fish,
Let’s not worry too much, that we have polluted the river,
Let’s Just Blame These Damned Birds, That is Our Wish!

And in our rapidly escalating human arrogance and self-righteousness
Our idiotic government will now spend millions, to slaughter Cormorants
Who gives a damn, if we now shoot and poison these birds into extinction
We’re Superior Beings, Earth’s Remaining Fish Resources, Belong to Man


The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers now plans on targeting double-crested cormorants on East Sand Island, which is located near the mouth of the Columbia River. It is considered an important point for migrating salmon, but it’s also an important nesting site for cormorants and a variety of other birds.

According to the Audubon Society, this island is home to the largest double-crested cormorant colony in the west, the largest Brown Pelican roost in the Pacific Northwest, and the largest Caspian Tern colony in the world. It has also been designated as an internationally recognized ‘Important Bird Area’ by both the Audubon Society and by the American Bird Conservancy.

Even with thousands of cormorants in the area, these birds only consume about 3.6 percent of the local salmon population. Still, the Army Corps wants them gone and has passed over non-lethal management options because it believes they would be less effective. Instead, its first choice is to spend $1.5 million a year over the next four years to slaughter a total of 16,000 cormorants.

Needless to say this plan is drawing severe opposition from wildlife advocates who are concerned that this plan isn’t just cruel and wasteful, but that it is using birds as scapegoats for current threats to salmon and trout, which are mainly caused by human activity.

They are also concerned about how killing cormorants on a grand scale will affect their future, and that this plan may have unintended consequences. Some believe that these cormorants are still recovering from the effects of DDT that caused their numbers to drop significantly in the 1960s and that other populations in the West are also now declining.

The Audubon Society of Portland has called this plan “horrific” and has pointed out that the corps has already spent millions trying, unsuccessfully, to change bird behavior on the island, and is calling for our government to completely overhaul its approach to bird management in the area and to focus instead on the primary causes of our current salmon and trout decline, which are over-fishing, water pollution, dams, and habitat loss.

©July 2014, Once Again Ashamed To Be A Human Being, Mr. Ed