Sponsors (4)
The bill makes it easier for fish producers and local managers to control cormorant predation and clarifies authority across more States, but it increases risks to cormorant populations, public conflict, and regulatory oversight and monitoring burdens if limits and reporting are not strictly enforced.
Aquaculture operators, lake and pond managers, and small commercial fish producers can legally take double‑crested cormorants under a renewed depredation order, reducing predation losses to stocked and cultured fish and helping protect business revenue and jobs.
State and local resource managers in the newly included States gain clear legal authority to control cormorant impacts, reducing uncertainty about permissible control actions across a broader geographic area.
Modernized terminology, simplified recordkeeping, and a required renewal process at least every five years reduce administrative burden for regulated entities and USFWS and create scheduled opportunities to reassess the order based on new science or changing conditions.
Rural communities and wildlife advocates face increased risk that broadly authorizing cormorant take will reduce protections for the species and could harm local cormorant populations if limits are not effectively enforced.
Local governments, rural communities, and the public may experience more bird mortality and heightened conflicts between wildlife conservation goals and depredation control, fueling public opposition and political disputes.
State and federal agencies could face greater enforcement and oversight challenges as managers gain more operational flexibility, increasing monitoring and compliance costs and complicating accountability.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Directs USFWS to reissue and expand a cormorant depredation order for aquaculture and pond/lake managers, broaden state coverage, update recordkeeping, and require five‑year renewals.
Introduced March 24, 2025 by Mike Ezell · Last progress December 10, 2025
Directs the Interior Secretary (through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) to reissue the existing depredation order that allows control of double‑crested cormorants at aquaculture sites, updating and expanding its scope. The reissued order would add many named States and may include others, explicitly allow lake and pond managers to use the order, modernize recordkeeping and compliance language, remove an old expiration date, and require renewal of the order at least every five years; it does not waive NEPA or Migratory Bird Treaty Act obligations.