March 31, 2016 — WASHINGTON — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service acted improperly when it allowed tens of thousands of migratory aquatic birds to be shot each year to protect farmed and sport fish populations, a federal judge has ruled.
The agency said it lacked resources for a “hard look” at either the long-range environmental effects of or possible alternatives to its decisions about double-crested cormorants, and that just isn’t a good reason, U.S. District Judge John D. Bates wrote.
Letting that stand could gut the National Environmental Protection Act, “since many an agency would frequently so argue,” wrote Bates, a federal judge in Washington.
He ruled Tuesday on a pair of orders that opponents say let people kill up to 160,000 double-crested cormorants each year to protect sport fish in 24 states east of the Mississippi River and farmed fish in 13 of those states.