DNR has cormorant plan in place for Pelican Lake, an important walleye fishery in western Minnesota

Bemidji, Minn. — The Minnesota DNR has developed and implemented an adaptive monitoring and management plan for cormorants on Pelican Lake in Grant County – one of the area’s most popular walleye fisheries.

The plan’s goal is to safeguard the walleye fishery while keeping close tabs on the lake’s cormorant colony, its population, and how it interacts with the lake’s walleye population. Cormorants are known fish predators. Based on the plan’s criteria (details deeper in story) and 2024 data collection, cormorant control was not recommended by the DNR for this spring.

“It was a two-year process of monitoring the situation on Pelican Lake and getting feedback from the lake association and other stakeholders on how to proceed,” said Marc Bacigalupi, northwest regional fisheries manager for the Minnesota DNR, regarding the new plan. He said that feedback the agency has gotten on the plan so far is that “it seems reasonable,” but concerns remain.

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The new monitoring plan is the by-product of the DNR engaging the public on its concerns about the quality of Pelican Lake’s walleye fishing as it pertains to its double-crested cormorant population.

Public worries on the potential effects to the walleye fishery began in the early to mid-2000s. A public meeting was first held on the issue in August 2023 in Ashby.

The DNR said it was considering “alternative management efforts” to improve the Pelican Lake’s walleye fishing after conducting lake population surveys as well as hearing angler complaints, especially from local anglers who insisted that there was a direct correlation between the lake’s growing cormorant population and poorer overall fishing.

A 2021 DNR gill-net survey of the lake showed catch rates “near a historical low,” a possible indication, the DNR said, that cormorants might be limiting the survival of young walleyes that are the key to sustaining a healthy walleye fishery.

Last year, citing back-to-back year-classes (2022 and 2023) of successful walleye production, the DNR decided – at least for the time being – against “cormorant population control” on Pelican Lake. The agency also announced it was in the process of developing an adaptive monitoring and management plan for the lake.

Plan ‘triggers’

The new plan identifies when cormorant management may be warranted. It includes ongoing monitoring to direct annual decisions based on triggers and thresholds. Annual reports are planned to aid in ongoing decision-making and management.

Currently, Leech Lake is the only state fishery on which lethal control is being used to control the cormorant population. According to the DNR, that program is being administered by the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe.

According to Bacigalupi, the new Pelican Lake plan has three triggers (two regarding walleye population sampling, another on the cormorant population, which the DNR now monitors annually with drone photography) that have thresholds for when cormorant management should be “considered.” All three must be met before any action is taken. Any decision for direct cormorant management would need approval by DNR Commissioner Sarah Strommen.

According to the DNR, the three triggers and thresholds include: A sustained catch per unit effort (CPUE) that is below 6.43 walleyes per gill net for two consecutive years; a sustained year-class strength (YCS) index below 1.63 walleyes for two consecutive year-classes or two consecutive periods when the YCS can be reliably calculated; and an active cormorant nest count of more than 1,000 nests.

According to the 2024 survey, the only threshold that was met was the population of cormorants. Based on spring drone photography, 1,716 active cormorant nests were counted.

Cormorants on Pelican

Cormorants nest on Pelican Lake’s Egret Island, which is managed as a bird sanctuary and hosts one of the largest colonies of breeding cormorants in Minnesota. According to the DNR, the island was gifted by The Nature Conservancy to the DNR’s Scientific and Natural Area program in 2007.

The island, which is popular with birders, also provides nesting habitat for American white pelicans, great blue herons, and many other colonial nesting water birds. Adult cormorants, which weigh from 4 to 6 pounds, have been known to consume 1 to 1.5 pounds per day, according to the DNR.

Most of their diet is fish. Ninety percent of the fish they consume are less than 6 inches long and have an average weight of 4 ounces.

The cormorant is federally protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which prohibits killing them, their eggs or young, and prohibits the disturbance of nests. As a result, any lethal measure to control the adult cormorant population – which, the agency says, would be expensive – on Pelican Lake would require a federal permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Any management activity, according to the DNR, must minimize disturbance to other bird species nesting nearby.

John Kent, 65, of Ashby, is a retired high-school biology teacher and an avid walleye angler who’s lived on Pelican for 31 years. He fishes the lake regularly. Kent said the fishing there was gotten poorer over time and that he’s glad the DNR now has a plan to address the issue.

“I’m very happy there’s a plan in place to monitor the situation,” he said. “It’s something that was needed to address the concerns of anglers, because Pelican Lake is an important fishery in this region.”

Kent stressed that he believes better fishing and a stable cormorant population can co-exist.

“I’m not in favor of killing all the cormorants,” he said. “But a balance needs to be struck. Cormorants really don’t have any natural predators.”