Beachte Verordnung Lower Austria

The Great Cormorant is tightly bound to water and breeds in colonies along sea coasts and at larger inland rivers and lakes. Its habitat ranges from brackish zones and the Wadden Sea through reservoirs and gravel-pit lakes to slow-flowing river stretches that hold enough fish. As an outstanding underwater hunter, it feeds almost exclusively on fish and adapts readily to a wide variety of water bodies.

After intense persecution the species was practically extinct across much of inland Central Europe around 1920. Under the protection of the EU Birds Directive a clear recovery and range expansion set in from the mid-twentieth century onward. Several tens of thousands of pairs now breed in Germany, and the European population is estimated at several hundred thousand breeding pairs. The European Commission considers the conservation status of the species to be favourable, which is why the subspecies P. c. carbo and P. c. sinensis are not listed in Annex I of the Birds Directive.

Conflicts arise above all with pond aquaculture and with commercial and recreational fisheries, since concentrated stocked fish and migrating fish populations are easy prey. On the basis of Article 9 of the EU Birds Directive and through state-level regulations such as the Bavarian Artenschutzrechtliche Ausnahmeverordnung, scaring and shooting are permitted at defined times and within a defined zone around water bodies in several federal states. Conservation groups such as NABU view broad lethal management critically and emphasise non-lethal measures and the continuing protection status of the species. Closed and open seasons, the geographical scope of any derogations and the need for individual permits must always be checked against current state law and local ordinances before any management action.