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European Inventory Estimated More Than €670 Million in Annual Fish Damage From Great Cormorant Predation

Great cormorant holding a fish at the water surface
Conservation · Human–wildlife conflict

A European inventory published on 12 August 2026 estimates that great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) predation causes more than €670 million in economic damage to fish stocks each year across the 26 countries surveyed. The inventory was prepared by the European Inland Fisheries and Aquaculture Advisory Commission (EIFAAC) together with the European Anglers Alliance and the Federation of European Aquaculture Producers, using information from more than 300 stakeholder organizations for 2023 and 2024.

The €670 million headline is a modelled estimate

The €670 million figure is a harmonized estimate, not a direct tally of invoices or independently measured fish losses. The inventory combines estimates of cormorant abundance, how long birds are present and fish-consumption rates with economic valuation and information on reported impacts. This makes it possible to compare damage on a European scale, but the result depends on the underlying population data, assumptions and the amount and quality of information available from each country.

Fisheries and aquaculture figures use different data and extrapolations

The report also presents separate estimates for fisheries and aquaculture. Recreational and other inland fisheries are put at €150–220 million in annual losses. Freshwater aquaculture losses reported by the surveyed countries exceed €138 million a year, while total European aquaculture losses are estimated at around €250 million. Pond farms commonly reported production losses of 10–30% of fish stocks, with some extreme cases reaching 70%, alongside costs for guarding, scaring and netting.

These sector figures are based on different types of data and extrapolation and should not simply be added together as components of the €670 million headline estimate. The inventory is intended to bring uneven national and stakeholder information into a common framework rather than provide an audited European balance sheet.

The report also covers predation on wild fish including salmonids, cyprinids, percids, sturgeons and European eel (Anguilla anguilla). Its authors argue that sustained predation can reduce catches and stock productivity and hinder recovery of vulnerable fish populations. Because great cormorants move across national borders, EIFAAC, EAA and FEAP use the inventory to support their call for coordinated European monitoring and management. That management proposal is a recommendation from the organizations behind the inventory, separate from the economic estimates themselves.

Sources and image credit

  1. European inventory of fish damages caused by cormorant predationPrimary 2026 EIFAAC Occasional Paper. The inventory was compiled jointly with the European Anglers Alliance and Federation of European Aquaculture Producers from information supplied by more than 300 stakeholder organizations in 26 countries for 2023–2024. It estimates more than €670 million in annual economic damage to fish stocks from cormorant predation, €150–220 million in annual losses to recreational and other inland fisheries, more than €138 million in reported freshwater-aquaculture losses in surveyed countries and around €250 million in estimated total European aquaculture losses.
  2. Europe’s cormorant toll: new study estimates EUR 670 million in annual fish damageOfficial EIFAAC news release summarizing the report and its methodology, scale and management recommendations.

Image: Great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) holding a fish at the water surface, photographed in Nepal on 22 January 2024. Photo: Ganga Raj Sunuwar (Sunuwargr). Source: Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0. Representative image; not from the European inventory. · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

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