NY DEC Completes Cormorant Study on Lake Ontario

According to a study just completed by the NY Department of Environmental Conservation, declines in small mouth bass and other warm water species in the eastern basin of Lake Ontario is due to two factors. The increase in double crested cormorants and an decrease in alewives and change in distribution.The study also found that Cormorants are feeding on larger bass than first thought. Greatly increased bass mortality in the 1995 class has been detected in 1998 as three year old fish. “If predation is unchecked, we anticipate two more years of intense predation on age-4 and age-5 fish will likely remove the remainder of the 1995 class prior to the time they become available to eastern basin bass anglers.”