“It’s really quiet so any gunshot every 10 minutes
I would consider a serious disturbance.”
Paul Zuest, Manager of Chatham Bars Inn
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| Eider duck Photo by Tony Hisgett |
Charming Chatham, Massachusetts (population 1,659) doesn’t look like a battleground, but it’s found itself on the frontlines of the eider duck wars. Every fall, thousands of eider ducks flock to Chatham Harbor to feast on the mussels living there. This feeding frenzy has turned into a call to arms for fishermen, who say they could be enjoying an economic boom from harvesting the mussels if only the ducks would stop eating them. Fishermen have turned to the town for help, which decided to try “air cannons” to frighten the ducks away. This decision has scared up opposition from area resort and home owners, who are up in arms about the possible effects of cannons kabooming from dawn until dusk. They’ve mounted an offensive to keep the cannons at bay and hope to find an ally in the Massachusetts Audubon Society, which owns a wildlife sanctuary nearby that offers refuge to, among other birds, the eider duck. The town concedes air cannons may not be the best idea and is willing to look at alternatives. In the meantime, while the humans battle it out, the eider ducks happily munch on mussels in Chatham Harbor.
Read more → Doreen Leggett, Chatham resort sounds off about air cannons, Wicked Local Cape Cod, December 21, 2011.
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