The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is denying last-ditch attempts by Arkansas fish farmers to obtain individual permits that would allow them to kill limited numbers of double-crested cormorants this winter, according to Arkansas Online.
The Fish and Wildlife Service, a part of the federal Interior Department, lost a federal lawsuit this spring over the issuance of “depredation permits” allowing fish farmers or wildlife-management officials to kill cormorants deemed a threat to the aquaculture industry or to public resources. That permit differs from the individual permit known as a Form 37.
U.S. District Judge John D. Bates ruled in Washington, D.C., that the agency had violated the National Environmental Protection Act in how it reached its environmental assessment that said killing a limited number of cormorants would not harm its nationwide population. The bird is protected to some extent under the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
