Letter to the Editor: Open Letter to U.S. Fish and Wildlife

We don’t think you get it! You are messing with our livelihood on these Lake Michigan islands and Door County. Our economy thrives because of the tourists and vacationers. They come to fish, swim, snorkel, dive, kayak, boat, paddleboard and enjoy the unpolluted waters of Lake Michigan. They come for the beauty of our natural and cultural resources. They come to smell the fresh air, to beach-party, and to enjoy the fish boils, perch dinners and family time.

They do not come to see thousands of squawking, fish-eating cormorants defecating in Lake Michigan. They do not want to see pollution of the waters and the devastation of vegetation, trees, soil, lighthouses, and shipwrecks; nor do they wish to smell putrid air from the guano of 20,430 cormorants on Pilot and Spider Islands. Pilot Island is a symbol of the wasteful, unhealthy cormorant management by Fish and Wildlife. The  total disregard for our economy, ecology, fisheries, health and history is unfathomable. 

Michigan has been able to get their cormorant overpopulation under control. Congressman Jack Bergman listened to his constituency in his District 1 of upper and part of lower Michigan. He got a bill passed in 2021 to limit the number of cormorants. He said, “The lack of management options for double-crested cormorants has negatively impacted Michigan’s First District, where we rely on healthy fisheries and our thriving natural resources.”

Guess what! District 1 in Michigan is 26 miles from our Lake Michigan islands. We are in the same boat. Why reinvent the bill? If it can be done for Michigan, it can be done for us. We are in the same United States, the same Great Lakes, the same Lake Michigan, the same Fish and Wildlife region – and the same dilemma. 

We are asking for the same management consideration for our fisheries, our livelihood and our islands.

Martena and Rip Koken

Washington Island, Wisconsin