The cormorant and its immense food requirements concern fish farmers and fishing clubs in the Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen district.
Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen – At the beginning of the 20th century it was considered almost extinct in Germany. But the cormorant population has now recovered. What's more: The 80 to 100 centimeter tall bird reproduces splendidly - and is increasingly causing problems in the Free State. Because he is a real glutton. An animal needs up to half a kilogram of fish per day - and it likes to help itself from ponds, lakes and rivers.
“Like a sword swallower”: This is how the cormorant causes problems for fish stocks and fishing clubs
Florian Willibald, chairman of the Geretsried fishing association, has the flying fish eaters in his sights. Literally. The birds may explicitly be hunted within a radius of 200 meters from standing water. “And I do that too,” says Willibald, whose hunting area includes the Schaberer Weiher near Eurasburg, one of the club’s three bodies of water. As soon as he has killed one or two animals there, “the others flee at the first sign of people”. As an alternative to shooting them, there is also the option of scaring the animals away. Willibald's strategy: "Wherever I'm allowed, I shoot into the air with a shotgun."
Unfortunately, this is not possible in all club waters. For example, at the Stallauer Weiher between Bad Tölz and Bad Heilbrunn - sandwiched between a campsite and a country road. Willibald: “Hunting cormorants is not high on the list for local hunters. However, the location doesn’t make it easy for him either.”
“Cormorants are a massive problem,” says Florian Herzinger, chairman of the Bad Tölz district fishing association. It is particularly bad in winter when the lakes freeze over. “The cormorants are of course hungry, and then they go to the Isar.” This makes them a real threat to the fishing clubs. A cormorant eats around half a kilo of fish every day, “you can imagine what that means every year,” says Herzinger.
“Massive occurrence” in recent years – danger to native fish
The cormorant has reached a “massive population” in recent years, which cannot be natural. This makes it a real danger, especially for local fish. “Every animal,” emphasizes Herzinger, “has to live its correction, that has to be made clear.” But at the moment there are simply too many cormorants. The relationship between fish-eating predators, the so-called predators, which according to Herzinger include not only the cormorant but also the goosander and the otter, and the fish is no longer balanced.
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Meanwhile, Herzinger is also battling an image problem. “Fish are underwater and are therefore perceived differently by the public,” he says. Birds like the cormorant or the goosander would have an easier time there.
The cormorant is rarely seen around the 43 ponds of the Eglinger Aumühle fish farm. But the gray heron – just as fond of fish but less aggressive – is a constant guest, according to office manager Monika Holzer. “We’ve tried a lot of things. For example, pop-up little men that were supposed to scare away the birds. But they are too smart for that.” They have now spanned all the ponds with wire nets. “It was a lot of effort,” remembers Holzer. Employees have to check the networks again and again. “If a few birds help themselves, it’s not a problem. But the real problem becomes when we give them free rein.”
The Ammerland fishing association only recently found out what happens when a cormorant can do whatever it wants. Almost five weeks ago, chairman Richard Nüßlein stocked the Sonderhamer Weiher with roughly 220 brown trout, “many of them between 40 and 50 centimeters long”. A single cormorant enjoyed it afterwards. Nüßlein estimates that the animal has either killed or fatally injured 30 to 40 fish since then. “Unfortunately, the birds are incredibly good divers.”
And while the gray heron only feasts on small fish, the cormorant doesn't shy away from larger specimens either. Nüßlein: “I was able to observe that once. Like a sword swallower, the bird choked down a 45 centimeter long brown trout – in one piece.”
The fishing association itself has not yet had to take action. “Involuntarily feeding a cormorant is still okay. But as soon as there is a second animal – or even a breeding pair – then we call the hunter.”
By the way: Everything from the region is also available in our regular Wolfratshausen-Geretsried newsletter.