Double-crested cormorants create conundrum for biologists

The double-crested cormorant is one of many seabirds that love to eat salmon. The birds were driven away from East Sand Island near the mouth of the Columbia River decades ago in an effort to protect the fish, but wildlife managers are now responding to some unintended consequences. Roughly 10,000 cormorants now prefer to make their home on the Astoria-Megler bridge. The acid from their excrement, or guano, eats through the bridge coating which Oregon Department of Transportation workers must remove regularly for safety inspections. Nesting cormorants can also  find their way onto the roadway, leading to encounters which can be fatal for the birds and pose safety hazards for drivers. We talk with James Lawonn, an avian biologist at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, about what’s being done to protect the birds and the bridge.