Proposes introducing quotas for cormorant hunting

The Seimas Committee on Rural Affairs proposes to introduce cormorant hunting quotas for fish farms. Rolandas Morkūnas, director of the National Association of Aquaculture and Fish Breeders, says that today the cormorant population far exceeds Lithuania's commitments.

Lithuania has between 8,300 and 8,500 breeding pairs, but Lithuania has made a commitment to the European Union that there should be no more than 2,000. Lithuania has 880 square kilometres of water bodies where cormorants can live freely, and 10 square kilometres of ponds.

„I understand that all birds in Lithuania are protected species, and the cormorant is a non-hunted species, so we are asking that 99% of Lithuanian lakes be hunted, and only 1% of Lithuanian water bodies with aquaculture be allowed to be driven out by lethal means,

According to the data of the State Service for Protected Territories, 8,900 pairs of Great Cormorants will breed in Lithuania in 2021, 9,279 pairs in 2022, 7,868 pairs in 2023 and 8,021 pairs in 2024. In Lithuania, Great Cormorants are found in 8 colonies of different sizes. The largest are in Juodkrantė and Rusnė archipelago.