密歇根新闻广播 今年春天不再对北美五大湖的鸬鹚进行致命控制

For more than a decade, double crested¹ cormorants³ could be killed in 24 states in the eastern U.S. In the Great Lakes, it was mainly done to protect sport fish like perch⁴ and bass⁵.

But last spring a federal judge stopped the program, saying the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wasn't doing the research on cormorants necessary to justify⁶ killing⁷ them.

Sport fishing groups hoped that research would have been done by now and the program could resume.

Jim Johnson is a fisheries biologist involved with a citizen's group for Lake Huron. He says he can't even find anyone at Fish and Wildlife working on the issue.

"Maybe they have assigned somebody but we can't find anybody to say ‘Oh yeah I'm working on it,'" says Johnson.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service put out a fact sheet late last year that says there is a team in place working on cormorant² research.

But an earlier version of the document said the issue was not a priority.

The agency did not provide a recorded interview for this story.

Cormorants have been killed to protect fish in a number of places in the upper Great Lakes, including the Les Cheneaux Islands, Beaver⁸ Island, and Ludington.

People in the Les Cheneaux Islands say the water birds devastated⁹ the tourism economy there by eating all the perch.

But James Ludwig says those claims are exaggerated. He's an ornithologist¹⁰ and one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit¹¹ against the Fish and Wildlife Service that stopped the use of lethal¹² control. He says the number of cormorants in the Great Lakes is down sharply.

Ludwig says that's in part because there are fewer fish for the birds to eat.

"I think it may be a situation where you could relax all pressure on cormorants and they won't respond very much," he says.

For now, there will not be any human pressure on the cormorant population.

Spring is when most of the lethal control happens in the Great Lakes and no permits will be issued this year. And according to the Fish and Wildlife Service, it might be years before that changes.

1 crested   

adj.有顶饰的，有纹章的，有冠毛的v.到达山顶（或浪峰）( crest的过去式和过去分词 )；到达洪峰，达到顶点

参考例句：

• a great crested grebe 凤头䴙䴘
• The stately mansion crested the hill. 庄严的大厦位于山顶。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

2 cormorant   

n.鸬鹚，贪婪的人

参考例句：

• The cormorant is a large,long-necked,dark-colored bird which lives near sea coasts and eats fish.鸬鹚是一种长脖子黑颜色的大鸟，生活在海滨而且以吃鱼为生。
• The exciting cormorant fishing performance is over there.那边有令人刺激的鱼鹰捕鱼表演。

3 cormorants   

鸬鹚，贪婪的人( cormorant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The birds are trained cormorants. 那些鸟是受过训练的鸬鹚。
• The cormorants swim down and catch the fish, and bring them back the raft. 鸬鹚又下去捉住鱼，再返回竹筏。

4 perch   

n.栖木，高位，杆；v.栖息，就位，位于

参考例句：

• The bird took its perch.鸟停歇在栖木上。
• Little birds perch themselves on the branches.小鸟儿栖歇在树枝上。

5 bass   

n.男低音(歌手)；低音乐器；低音大提琴

参考例句：

• He answered my question in a surprisingly deep bass.他用一种低得出奇的声音回答我的问题。
• The bass was to give a concert in the park.那位男低音歌唱家将在公园中举行音乐会。

6 justify   

vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护

参考例句：

• He tried to justify his absence with lame excuses.他想用站不住脚的借口为自己的缺席辩解。
• Can you justify your rude behavior to me?你能向我证明你的粗野行为是有道理的吗？

7 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

8 beaver   

n.海狸，河狸

参考例句：

• The hat is made of beaver.这顶帽子是海狸毛皮制的。
• A beaver is an animals with big front teeth.海狸是一种长着大门牙的动物。

9 devastated   

v.彻底破坏( devastate的过去式和过去分词)；摧毁；毁灭；在感情上（精神上、财务上等）压垮adj.毁坏的；极为震惊的

参考例句：

• The bomb devastated much of the old part of the city. 这颗炸弹炸毁了旧城的一大片地方。
• His family is absolutely devastated. 他的一家感到极为震惊。

10 ornithologist   

n.鸟类学家

参考例句：

• That area is an ornithologist's paradise.那个地区是鸟类学家的天堂。
• Now I know how an ornithologist feels.现在我知道做为一个鸟类学家的感受了。

11 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

12 lethal   

adj.致死的；毁灭性的

参考例句：

• A hammer can be a lethal weapon.铁锤可以是致命的武器。
• She took a lethal amount of poison and died.她服了致命剂量的毒药死了。