Measures to cull double-crested cormorants likely have no impact on the number of adult Snake River steelhead returning from the ocean to spawn, according to a prelim- inary analysis by U.S. Fish and Wildlife. Cormorants eat juvenile Snake River steelhead. Cormorant numbers have been stable since 2004, according to the Northwest Power and Conservation Council. Reducing predation by these birds is among the actions in a 2014 federal plan to protect Endangered Species Act listed salmon and steelhead. The plan calls for reducing the double-crested cormorant population in the estuary at the mouth of the Columbia River from about 13,000 nesting pairs to 5,300 to 5,900.
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