The Cormorant Relief Act of 2025 directs the Secretary of the Interior to restore and expand federal regulations that allow the killing of double-crested cormorants to protect fish at aquaculture facilities. The bill essentially brings back a depredation order that was in effect as of January 2016, but extends it to cover twelve additional states (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin) and expands protections to include private lake and pond managers, not just commercial fish farms. The Secretary must complete this reissuance within one year of the bill becoming law. The legislation does not specify new funding, as it primarily reinstates existing regulatory authority rather than creating new programs. Fish farmers and private water managers in the covered states would gain the ability to control cormorant populations that damage their operations under this expanded federal order.
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