A MASS cull of cormorants in England is leading to a review of how the birds are controlled in Wales. Less than 24 hours after voting to ban foxhunting, the UK government raised the annual limit for killing cormorants in England sixfold from 500 to 3,000, around 20% of the English cormorant population. The issue is dealt with by the Department of Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in England. The process of granting licences will also be simplified and speeded up. For the first time fishery owners will not have to prove cormorants are damaging their stocks. Yesterday the Assembly said it would be looking at how it controls the cormorant population in Wales - normally with licences for farmers to cull the birds. An Assembly spokesman said: "Licences to remove cormorants are very rarely issued in Wales although there are cases where that arises. "We will be looking at Defra's proposals to see if we can improve on our systems. "If the only course of action would be to remove them by killing, it could only be done by the appropriate person as humanely as possible." UK fisheries minister Ben Bradshaw said: "The new system will be monitored to ensure the conservation status of the cormorant population is not threatened." | 
