Click on photo for printable picture. The meeting was one of several planned around the nation by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The aquaculture industry is hit hard by the fish-eating birds, the participants said.
Aquaculture includes catfish farming, baitfish farming and exotic fish raising.
The birds are a major problem for fish hatcheries of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, as well. The double-crested cormorants are one of six species of cormorants birds living in North America. Worldwide, there are 38 species of cormorants, which are related to pelicans. The cormorants spend the warmer months in the Great Lakes region, nesting and breeding there. They migrate to Arkansas and other areas of the lower Mississippi River Valley, the Gulf Coast and the south Atlantic coast in fall and winter.