The impact on wetland ecosystems
We report the words of MEP Anna Cisint in her note sent from Brussels: "In a targeted question, co-signed by her colleague Aldo Patriciello, Friulian MEP Anna Maria Cisint asked the European Commission what legislative action and when it intends to take to resolve the problem of the great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo), a fish-eating bird whose numbers are constantly increasing and which has long been causing problems for fisheries and biodiversity. "The cormorant's impact on fish populations and wetland ecosystems has seriously worsened: in Italy, the species is continuously increasing and has begun to expand to high altitudes along waterways and Alpine lakes."
Unapplied Exceptions
“In the Italian lagoons, extensively producing organic fish has become uneconomical. Also paying the price are fish species of high environmental value such as grayling and eel. The exemptions for extraordinary collection remain unapplied or applied inconsistently and in any case insufficiently and the bureaucratic delays as well as the ideological battles of some categories to the detriment of biodiversity, worsen the situation.
The legislation to be changed
“In the meantime, the ecological damage is constantly increasing. I have therefore asked for the possibility of intervening directly on the annexes of the Birds Directive in order to make the species huntable in all member states. I recall that for the wolf the European Council has given the green light to the modification of the protection regime, similar action could also be taken for the constantly increasing avifauna, such as the cormorant. I would like to underline that without rapid and concrete legislative actions the biodiversity itself, which we want to preserve so much, will suffer, as well as a very important part of the fishing sector, extensive aquaculture” (Source: Secretariat of the Hon. Cisint).
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