An article on double-crested cormorants or "shags," which the Rockland-based gro

• Main Author: Textor, Ken
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Portland Public Library Digital Commons 2005
• Subjects: Cormorants; Guano; Atlantic salmon
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.portlandlibrary.com/news_downeast/2885

An article on double-crested cormorants or "shags," which the Rockland-based group Friends of Maine Seabird Islands is trying to make a little more popular. The birds' guano can remove a dock's paint and defoliate whole nesting islands. Some in Maine would like to lift restrictions on cormorant hunting, as nearly a dozen other states have already done. Fishermen claim the birds eat hatchling fish, but studies show they eat mostly trash fish. Advocates for the locally endangered Atlantic salmon are the most vocal critics of cormorants. Details.