The double-crested cormorant may be legally protected, but if the town of Chilmark and the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) get their way, the Island will soon see fewer of the pesky birds, whose voracious appetites threaten fish restoration projects.

The tribe is seeking a special permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to harass and kill the birds in order to protect the historic herring run. Chilmark is applying for the same permit to protect the new flounder restoration project. This is the first time the town has applied for the permit.

Federal, state and local laws protect the animal, known as a species of critical concern, and a special permit is needed to harass or kill them.

Bret Stearns, director of the natural resources department for the tribe, said he estimates the birds in the creek number in the hundreds. Per the guidelines of the permit, the tribe would be allowed to kill 10 per cent of the total estimated bird population, but can use non-lethal means to harass all of them with the goal of protecting young herring.

The tribe would use pyrotechnics such as bangers, a shotgun shell with no ballistics, to scare birds from the run, and would likely use a shotgun with non-lead bullets to kill the allotted amount of birds, he said.

“What you’re hoping for, really, is in the process of harassing them and getting them off where you don’t want them to be, and taking a few of them, they don’t come back to that location,” Mr. Stearns said.

Cormorants eat between