§ Mr. BennettTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what assessment the Environment Agency has made of the damage caused by cormorants to inland fishing.[88194]
§ Mr. MealeIn 1995 my Department, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Environment Agency commissioned a three year programme of research on the problem of fish-eating birds, including cormorants, at inland fisheries. The research was aimed at identifying the populations, distributions and movements of these birds, their feeding ecology, the extent of the problems they can cause and assessing different management techniques to reduce those problems. The final results will be disseminated to the fishing and bird conservation interests at a seminar to be held on 30 September.