Great cormorants have recovered strongly across Europe, creating conflict with recreational and commercial fishers. Managing this conflict in ways that protect both fish welfare and cormorant welfare requires careful evidence-based approaches.
Cormorant management for fishery conflict resolution creates welfare dilemmas for both species involved. Lethal control of cormorants causes acute welfare harm to birds with strong social bonds and complex behaviour. Non-lethal deterrents that work by creating fear cause chronic stress in cormorants displaced from preferred foraging sites. Fish welfare considerations also apply: cormorant predation causes stress and injury to surviving fish in areas with high predation pressure. Evidence-based conflict resolution must weigh cormorant welfare, fish welfare, and the contested evidence on population-level impact. Non-lethal management that effectively protects commercial fish interests without lethal control represents the welfare-positive approach where achievable.