Sharp shooters to kill 4,000 cormorants suspected to be eating all the walleye in Leech Lake.
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This is so emarassing that this is happening in my state. Walleye populations are down on Leech Lake so last summer the DNR killed about 500 cormorants to see if they were eating the walleye. When they checked the birds' stomach contents they found mostly perch and came to the natural conclusion that since the birds ate all the walleye, they are now only able to eat perch. Never mind that we had a similar situation here years ago on Red Lake and after all the studies the true culprit ended up being commercail overfishing. Grrr. It's just because these birds are ugly that no one is stepping up and saying, "Hey, this logic makes no sense. Here's an idea, let's maybe not fish from this lake so much over the next five years."