MUTE SWANS

In Maryland, DNR has and continues to use several techniques. Egg oiling
(also used to control cormorant populations) can be difficult. It can be
hard to find nests and well, I love it when people who have never
encountered an large animal defending young start opining that the eggs
should be addled or oiled. In an editorial published in the Washington Post,
TV host Montel Williams - whose sole connection to/knowledge of the issue
was that he went to Annapolis and thus has seen the Chesapeake Bay - voiced
this opinion.

In addition, egg oiling and addling are a drain on the extremely limited
resources of Maryland DNR, diverting attention from other natural resource
activities.

Remember that swans are long-lived and have a long reproductive life, so if
you tried to maintain a population of 500, and missed even a few nests each
year, the population would actually grow, albeit more slowly than an
uncontrolled population.

As the majority report from the Mute Swan Task Force to the Maryland
Secretary of Natural Resources explains, since oiling/addling actually just
slows the growth of the population, ultimately there will be more adult
swans to kill and more nests to find and more eggs to oil/addle.

Ellen Paul
Chevy Chase MD

In closing, I would just like to say: Nutria. Zebra mussels. Northern
Snakeheads. The only difference between these species and Mute Swans is....?

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