# Understanding the Cormorant Relief Act of 2025

This bill is about giving fish farmers and pond managers permission to deal with a bird problem. Double-crested cormorants are water birds that eat fish, and they've become a significant issue for people who raise fish commercially or manage private ponds and lakes. The bill would allow these managers to take action against cormorants that are eating their fish without needing special permission each time.

The core of the bill restores an older federal rule from 2016 that allowed aquaculture facilities (fish farms) to control cormorant populations. Right now, that rule has been changed or restricted, making it harder for fish farmers to protect their stock. This bill would bring back that original rule and expand it to cover more states and more types of water managers. Specifically, it would apply the rule to twelve additional states including California, Colorado, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, plus it would extend protections to people who professionally manage private lakes and ponds, not just commercial fish farms.

For fish farmers and aquaculture businesses, this means they'd have clearer legal authority to remove or scare away cormorants that are damaging their operations. For private lake and pond managers who are licensed by their state, they'd get the same ability to manage cormorant populations on their properties. The practical effect is that these groups wouldn't need to jump through as many regulatory hoops to protect their fish from bird predation. However, this could be controversial among bird conservation advocates who worry about impacts on cormorant populations, though the bill itself doesn't specify exactly what methods of "taking" cormorants would be allowed.

Cormorant Relief Act of 2025

Ezell, Mike

Cormorant Relief Act of 2025This bill requires the Department of the Interior to reissue the depredation order for double-crested cormorants at aquaculture facilities in certain states. (The previous order was vacated in 2016 by court order.)Depredation orders allow for the taking (i.e., capturing, killing, dispersing, or transport of the carcass) of a specified species without a permit, generally to reduce damage caused by the species or to protect interests like health or property. Reissuing this order authorizes landowners, operators, tenants, and employees of entities engaged in aquaculture to take double-crested cormorants that are causing or threatening harm at aquaculture facilities and state and federal fish hatcheries.Interior must reissue the depredation order with updates, including an expansion of (1) the number of states covered by the order, and (2) the entities to whom the order applies (i.e., private lake and pond managers who are licensed by the state).Under the bill, Interior must renew the depredation order every five years.