NHK TV Otsu reported that from April 2009, Shiga will restart the culling of cormorant birds called kawau. They found that the kawau population in Shiga has almost doubled since last year to a whopping 74,000 birds. Most of them live on Chikubushima island where they have devastated the trees with their droppings and nests. The once picturesque and lush green island is going bald and brown.

Shiga wants to reduce the kawau population to 4,000 birds in 5 years. Wow, where will all those dead birds go? In the lake??