Following the Angling Trust’s campaign for reform of the policy relating to cormorants and other fish eating birds, Fisheries Minister Richard Benyon MP has written to the Trust’s chief executive setting out the timetable for the review.

Defra has also published on its web site the terms of reference, scope and timeframes for “an evidence-led review of Defra’s current policy in relation to controlling the impact of predation on inland fisheries and fish farms from fish-eating birds, and, specifically, in relation to the threat of serious damage caused by cormorants, goosanders and red-breasted mergansers”.

The review will be in four phases:

1) evidence and data gathering
2) analysis and assessment (including advice to Defra Ministers as whether evidence indicates public consultation is appropriate)
3) public consultation (if required based on outputs of phase 2)
4) reporting and recommendations

The review is due to report in Spring of 2012.

Angling Trust Chief Executive Mark Lloyd said: “This review will be evidence-led and it is therefore vitally important that anglers keep reporting sightings of cormorants and other fish eating birds on our cormorant watch web site - Cormorant Watch. More than 25,000 birds have been logged on the web site in the first two months, which is a great start, but we will need data from throughout the year, and throughout the country if we are to make the case for change.”