Government hunters are preparing to shoot thousands of hungry sea birds on an island at the mouth of the Columbia River near Ilwaco, WA to prevent them from eating baby salmon. The plan is to reduce the Double Crested Cormorants population from 14,000 breeding pairs to 5,600 pair by the year 2018. The large black birds with long necks and hooked bills, dive beneath the surface to catch salmon as they migrate downstream to the Pacific Ocean. Biologists blame the Cormorants for eating an average of 12 million baby salmon each year including some federally protected species.
