Conflict over cormorants in the Opole region – ecologists question approval for culling

The Regional Nature Conservation Authority in Opole has granted permission to kill 361 cormorants due to the serious damage they cause to fish stocks. The cull will continue until the end of February, but not everyone agrees with this decision. The conflict between anglers and ecologists has been growing for years. Do cormorants really need to be eliminated?

The RDOŚ explains the decision on culling

On 27 January this year, the Regional Director for Environmental Protection in Opole issued a statement regarding the decision to cull protected birds. This was a response to reports appearing in local media, which triggered a strong public reaction.

As explained by the RDOŚ, the Opole District of the Polish Angling Association submitted an application for permission to kill 660 individuals of the great cormorant, an activity prohibited for a protected species. In response, the Regional Nature Conservation Authority issued a permit in November 2025 allowing the elimination of 361 birds. The permit will be valid until the end of February 2026. The cull may be carried out at the Nysa Reservoir and the Otmuchów Reservoir, as well as on the largest rivers in the Opole region.

The RDOŚ confirmed the need to limit the serious damage that cormorants cause to fisheries management. The permit was preceded by an analysis showing that the population of the great cormorant in the region will not suffer as a result of the reduction, and that alternative solutions are lacking – visual deterrents do not work, and other scaring methods are difficult to implement due to the tourist, recreational and navigational functions of regional reservoirs.

The problem concerns the entire country

An analysis published on 22 January this year on the West Pomeranian Angling Portal indicates that in 2024-2025 permits were issued nationwide to kill a total of approximately 3,000 individuals of the species Phalacrocorax carbo – estimates suggest that only half of this limit was actually used.

The permits for culling result from a change in the species’ status from strict protection to partial protection and its inclusion in the annex to the Regulation of 6 October 2014 (Journal of Laws, item 1618). Under the current regulations, the RDOŚ may routinely issue permits for elimination, even though cormorants remain legally protected.

Data from the Polish Bird Monitoring programme for 2024 show that there are 28,800 breeding pairs nationwide, and at the peak of the season the population may exceed 70,000 individuals, including wintering and non-breeding birds. The largest cormorant colonies are observed in Western Pomerania and along the Baltic coast.

Are cormorants a threat?

Jakub Roszuk from the Polish Angling Association in Opole explains in an interview with the Opolska360.pl portal that one cormorant eats about 0.7 kg per day – reducing the regional population by 361 individuals means saving 250 kg of fish per month. For anglers who finance stocking with their own membership fees, cormorants are pests, and no compensation is provided for the damage they cause. The PAA in Opole indicates that losses in fisheries management amount to 30 percent of expenditures allocated to fish stocking.

There is also another side to the coin. As activist and naturalist Jacek Karczewski wrote two years ago in Wodne Sprawy, cormorants do indeed eat fish, but the total amount they consume is a small percentage of what humans catch and discard.

Ecologists emphasize that in healthy ecosystems the cormorant serves as a regulator, limiting the numbers of invasive species. In environments degraded by overfishing and eutrophication, its activity appears harmful. Łukasz Berlik, president of the Opole Natural History Society, believes it is easier to shoot hundreds of birds than to attempt to reform the institutions responsible for the poor condition of Polish waters.