The recent collapse of a major breeding colony for Double-crested Cormorants at the Salton Sea brings into strong relief the horrible decision of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to kill more than 11,000 Double-crested Cormorants at another colony in Oregon. The Army Corps says it must kill the birds on Oregon’s East Sand Island, and oil more than 26,000 nests to prevent hatching, in order to protect the young endangered salmon and sockeye that the birds feed upon them. Conservation groups, including Audubon, call this logic absurd, noting that the birds have been eating salmon for millennia, and that the true problem is the mismanagement of the federal hydropower system (dams), habitat loss, and fish hatcheries. (photo of Mullet Island by PS Hiker)

One of the Army Corps’ arguments for destroying so many birds is that Double-crested Cormorants are not endangered, and have other breeding sites. But this argument just fails to understand the precarious nature of the Pacific Flyway.

Until last year, North America’s second most active breeding site for Double-crested Cormorants was on Mullet Island at the Salton Sea. At one point in 1999, researchers found more than 5,400 mating pairs on the island, which like the Salton Sea itself, was created in 1905 when water flooded out of the Colorado River.

Once just a rocky outcropping, the island provided perfect breeding opportunities for the birds. Fish were plentiful and the water kept away predators, such as coyotes and raccoons. However, as the Salton Sea’s waters have been increasingly diverted over the years, Mullet Island has been moving more and more toward not being an island at all. Just last year, the end came. A land bridge emerged from the shore to the island, and the cormorants immediately stopped making nests. Many experts believe these birds are now at East Sand Island.

It’s important to understand that everything is connected, and that poor decisions in one corner of the Pacific Flyway reverberate throughout the ecological system. Our actions drove the Double-crested Cormorants out of Colorado Delta to the Salton Sea, then out of the Salton Sea to East Sand Island. When we drive them out of East Sand Island, where will they go from there?