Cormorants vs. Catfish In Miss.
It’s September--a great time to eat catfish! Heck, any time is a great time to eat catfish. But catfish farmers, part of the U.S. aquaculture industry, are facing a threat to their production. However, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service employees are helping them find a solution--and they’re employing satellite technology in the process.

“Once I attach this taillight to our boat, then we can head on out to the Mississippi Delta,” affirms APHIS’s Brian Dorr, prior to his participation in a nighttime search in a cypress swamp, looking for double-crested cormorants. --Photo by Teresa Howes

The Mississippi Delta accounts for about 70 percent of all catfish production in the U.S. But, according to Scott Werner, a research wildlife biologist and the project leader at APHIS’s Wildlife Services National Wildlife Research Center Mississippi Field Station in Starkeville, Miss., the problem is that, as America’s aquaculture industry has grown, so has the population of migratory birds which feed on fish from farm ponds.

“The bird that’s causing the most concern is the double-crested cormorant,” he advised. “It can eat about a pound of fish per day, and its numbers have increased to the tens of thousands in the winter migration season.” An added factor is that cormorants are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

Nonetheless, specialists with APHIS’s Wildlife Services Staff are working on an environmentally-sound solution. Werner said that his office is interacting with local, state, and federal agencies, studying the annual movement patterns and behavioral characteristics of cormorants.

“This will help us understand how those factors impact on catfish production,” he pointed out. “And the approach we use helps us meet the public’s demand that we be ecologically and socially responsible.”

Specifically, APHIS’s wildlife specialists rely on battery-operated transmitters--which they fit right onto the birds. Tommy King, an APHIS research wildlife biologist at the Station, said that the transmitter is about the size of--and looks similar to--a backpack. “It is brown in color and has a six-inch antenna, and the part touching the bird is spongy and rubbery,” he noted.

“This cormorant’s bill length is 57 millimeters,” concludes APHIS’s Tommy King, as he gently and carefully measures and then records the length of beak, weight, and other related measurements of yet another cormorant, prior to fitting it with a transmitter. --Photo by Teresa Howes

But, King acknowledged, because the birds are so smart and can identify the shape and color of vehicles, clothes, boats, and people, he and his APHIS colleagues must use a capture method that allows them to get near the birds to be outfitted. According to King, the biologists watch the calendar and wait until there is limited moonlight in the evening.

Brent Harrel, an APHIS wildlife technician at the Station, said that an APHIS boat, outfitted with bright lights, helps the specialists maneuver through cypress swamps--located close to catfish farms--where the cormorants rest. “The bright lights also disorient the cormorants,” he explained. “This causes them to dive--and that’s when our biologists can gather individual birds in a net.”

Six to seven birds are carefully taken to shore where biologists record their weights and other related measurements, and then outfit them with gear. “We’ll actually tie the transmitter on like a little backpack, and it doesn’t bother them a bit,” Harrel said. “Through the transmitters we’re able to get migration routes of the birds and the location of cormorant nests.”

“Hold on, I just about have this transmitter attached to the bird’s back,” notes APHIS’s Tommy King (right), as APHIS’s Brian Dorr gently and carefully holds a double-crested cormorant in his gloved hands. They are outfitting the cormorant with a transmitter so they can monitor the migration routes of cormorants and the location of cormorant nests. It’s one step in an APHIS strategy to use environmentally sound solutions to keep cormorants from feasting on catfish that are raised by catfish farmers, as part of the U.S. aquaculture industry. At the same time, APHIS’s overriding goal is to manage the problem--while still peacefully coexisting with the bird. --Photo by Teresa Howes

And how is that information transmitted? “Through satellite telemetry, the data is actually transmitted from a satellite to a ground station, and then through e-mail--all right from the transmitter on the bird--to one of our APHIS biologists, no matter where the bird is, anywhere in the world,” Harrel said.

APHIS specialists are using that tracking data to develop management strategies that protect wildlife, fish farmers, and the environment.

In addition to the satellite telemetry, APHIS’s biologists have been testing new ways to disperse the birds away from the catfish--in a non-lethal fashion. Greg Ellis, an APHIS aquaculture biologist at the Station, said that one such tool they’re employing is the 'Desmond laser.’ “It generates a red beam about one centimeter in diameter,” he explained. “The beam is aimed at the birds at night, while they’re sleeping near the catfish farms, to in effect, 'shoo them away’.”

“It’s a silent and non-lethal approach that doesn’t disturb other wildlife, like firearms and pyrotechnics tend to do,” he added. “And it’s very effective, particularly in waterfowl sensitive areas.”

Brian Dorr, an APHIS wildlife biologist at the Station, works closely with the cormorants as well as with farmers in the catfish industry. “Those farmers want to use a good ecologically sound approach to dealing with the double-crested cormorant,” he observed. “We, as wildlife biologists, are helping them to come up with solutions to manage the problem--while still peacefully coexisting with the bird.”

--Teresa Howes

Beam Me Up, Scully?
All you fans of the popular TV show “The X-Files” know that the season ended last May 21. In an episode titled “Requiem,” FBI agents Mulder and Scully returned to the scene of their first investigation seven years ago--and they encountered a UFO that may spell “the end of their relationship.” More specifically, Mulder found himself trapped out in the woods, on the other side of what looked like a wall of petroleum jelly, and on the verge of being “beamed up.” At the same time, he was rendered invisible to Scully, who was on the other side of that 'wall.’

That’s all well and good--but what’s it got to do with USDA?

The answer: that season finale episode was filmed on the San Bernardino National Forest, located about 60 miles east of of Los Angeles.

The show, which was filmed in early May, included a spaceship, levitation, and abduction by aliens.

“It was interesting to see just how they made the forest appear to be burning, and to watch them do the stunts involved with the show,” said Jim Ahearn, the Forest Service’s Battalion Chief on the Mountain Top Ranger District on the San Bernardino National Forest. His role was to serve on 'fire prevention standby,’ “in case any of the pyrotechnics or any other special effects got out of hand” and started a fire on the National Forest.

“But overall,” he noted, “there weren’t any glitches, and nothing went wrong.”

“20th Century Fox gave the San Bernardino National Forest mention in the credits, and that is unusual for a television series,” observed Betty Hartenstine, FS’s special use coordinator for the Mountain Top Ranger District. She noted that several movies, including “Parent Trap” and “Magnolia,” as well as commercials and documentaries, have used the San Bernardino National Forest for location shooting in recent years.

So if you missed the original airing of the “Requiem” episode of “The X-Files” and want to see that recognition of the San Bernardino National Forest in the credits at the end of the show, it is scheduled to be rebroadcast on October 29--assuming that the baseball World Series is over by then.

And then, when the fall season begins anew, we can all learn what Mulder’s fate is--and whether the San Bernardino National Forest played a role in that outcome.

Stay tuned.

--Lenore Will

Floods Recede; Mental Scars Stay
“We don’t want to cut people too short--letting them talk helps people recover.”

Brad Cogdill was referring to victims of a storm system that deluged the Red River Basin near Fargo, N.D. and Moorhead, Minn., last June. It caused an unexpected flood in the two border counties--Cass County, N.D. and Clay County, Minn.--where those two cities are located, respectively.

And even now, three months after that flood, Cooperative Extension system employees are helping out in the recovery process--physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Cogdill is an Extension agricultural agent and district director in the Cass County, N.D., Extension Service Office. “One of the things I find unique about disaster programming is that it takes longer to answer questions,” he observed. “People need to tell their story about what happened to them, and there is so much emotion involved.”

And, thanks in part to a Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service Special Needs grant for $60,000 that was awarded in August, Extension staff in both North Dakota and Minnesota can further their assistance. According to CSREES Assistant Administrator for Program and Analysis A.J. Dye, the monies are being shared by both states and are being used to hire additional personnel who will work with the public on flood recovery education and assistance, to include longer-term efforts to educate the public about counseling and other services available from various agencies.

That geographical area has a track record of having to cope with devastating floods. According to Becky Koch, an information specialist in North Dakota State University’s Department of Agriculture Communication in Fargo, both states dealt with flooding during the 1997 Red River floods and were able to use knowledge gained during the 1993 flooding of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. The August-September 1993 issue of the USDA News carried a story about USDA employees involved in the recovery efforts following the “Great Flood of '93.”

Nancy Frosaker-Johnson, an Extension educator for family and consumer science in the Clay County, Minn., Extension Service Office, advised that past experience has shown that emotional scars from such disasters linger long after the material damage has been fixed. As an example, she said, preliminary evaluations from the 1997 flood indicate that emotional recovery is a slow process.

“The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has been evaluating the impact of that flood on mental health issues,” she said. “Unfortunately, the results suggest that domestic abuse, alcohol problems, truancy, and more people seeking counselors have skyrocketed since the 1997 flood.”

“The financial and emotional strain takes a toll not just on adults, but also on children,” she added. “So, in the aftermath of these recent floods in June, we’ve been getting out the message of the importance of victims taking care of themselves, getting plenty of rest, eating right, and spending time with family and friends.” 

--Katie Smith