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Still time for those of you that have not made a comment yet. Must be in by the 20th.


www.regulations.gov/document?D=FWS-HQ-MB-2019-0103-1411

I commented in favor of the proposal, but it's basically a "better than nothing" venture. If you read through the restrictions and requirements, it's almost silly. Can only oil eggs with corn oil - no soy oil, extra-virgin, 10W 30. Shooing could be okay, but no decoys or cormorant calls allowed. Very strict reporting required - hire one egg oiler, hire two clerks to keep up with the paperwork. Whole bunch of stuff, like this. Most important is the USFWS figures the number of cormorants needed to bite the big one to eliminate the conflicts, then limits the reduction to 20% of that number. The goal is to cull the "flock" from roughly 900K down to a bit over 800K - so basically cutting the population to what it was a few years ago, not to what it was a few decades ago when the problems started.

Still, at least it puts states and tribes back in the game - better than sidelining them as happened in 2016.