Königsdorf
- Sometimes words like “bandits” and “Grattler” are used, and those are still the more harmless ones.
What Peter Pelz and his fellow hunters have had to listen to in his hunting ground between Königsdorf and Eurasburg in recent weeks is not the best. “The people are incredibly aggressive,” says Geretsrieder, who has been a hunter for 50 years.
As such, he and his colleagues help the Königsdorf fishing club to keep the cormorant populations around the club's waters in balance.
Many day trippers don't want to see the birds being shot and become brutal - often out of ignorance.
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Klaus Lange, chairman of the Königsdorf fishing association
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Because the strictly regulated hunting and scare-off - the latter means the driving away resulting from permanent disturbance - of the animals is officially permitted.
For years, the fish stocks in Bavarian waters have been falling dramatically, says Klaus Lange, head of the Königsdorf fishermen.
Associations and the Bavarian State Fisheries Association (LFV) tried to "counteract this alarming development" with all sorts of measures.
Stocking with catchable fish and forage fish as a food basis for predatory fish and for protected bird species such as the kingfisher is an important task here.
"In addition, there is the support stock for endangered and protected fish species as well as mussels that are not fished," continues Lange.
The otter and other birds such as the goosander also need a sufficient fish population for prey.
According to Lange, the aim is “to preserve the diversity of species in and outside the water.
That is why the ratio of the populations of different predators to the fish must be observed and, if necessary, regulated. "
The cormorant has hardly any natural predators in Germany.
A full-grown specimen eats around 500 grams of fish a day - according to Lange, "the weight of a portion trout".
Cormorant associations with more than 100 birds populate running waters, especially in winter, and eat very large quantities of fish - around 600 tons per year in Bavaria.
Cormorants are excellent divers, so their prey fish usually have no chance of escape, especially in shallow waters.
And the bird is "very smart", can see exactly who wants it bad or not, club boss Lange observed.
For example, if you take a broomstick and use it to approach the animals, they flee, "if you approach without it, it doesn't bother them at all".
The special abilities of birds are one of the reasons why over 90 percent of the fish in running waters are now on the red list of endangered animals.
Conscious and responsible intervention
The Königsdorf fishermen therefore encourage all lovers of a diverse nature to understand the hunting of animals.
This “conscious and responsible intervention” does not happen arbitrarily to exterminate a species, but is a “necessary measure to maintain the balance of all animal species after the environment has been sustainably changed through many interventions”.
Despite repeated controversial disputes between the State Association for Bird Protection (LBV), the Federal Nature Conservation Association (BN) and the nature conservation authorities with the State Fisheries Association, the first cormorant ordinance was issued in 1996.
The Exception Ordinance under species protection law has been in place in Bavaria since June 2008.
According to her, the birds may be killed between August 16 and March 14 within a radius of 200 meters from water.
Excluded are pacified hunting areas, nature reserves and national parks as well as European bird sanctuaries according to the Bird Protection Ordinance.
The measures and fields of activity of the fishing clubs and the state fisheries association are diverse.
In addition to the rearing and stocking of fish, these include counting fish in the waters, fishing before flood protection and renaturation work, as well as the subsequent restocking.
Association and clubs like his, according to Klaus Lange, also take on "important tasks" such as maintaining and creating new spawning grounds, controlling fishing regulations with the prevention of fish poaching, bank and water maintenance with environmental protection measures, waste disposal and extensive Youth work.
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