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...