Business Notes AQUACULTURE

A predator haunts the Mississippi Delta, restlessly scanning the flooded soils in search of its next meal. Black, hooknosed and web-footed, the hunter can dive as deep as 75 ft. under water and consume a pound of fish a day. The bird is known as the double-crested cormorant, but people in the delta are calling it the catfish poacher.

In these parts, where catfish farming has become an important business, growers processed 295 million lbs. of the fish last year, up from 47 million lbs. in 1980. But in Mississippi, which produces 90% of all U.S. catfish, some 100,000 migratory cormorants are biting into the profits by feasting on as much as $6 million worth of catfish a year. Because the birds are largely protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, catfish farmers have resorted to elaborate tactics to scare the birds away: screaming fireworks, propane cannons that boom every 15 to 20 minutes, amplified recordings of bird distress calls and even harassment by helicopter.