Residents worry droppings will hit water
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Coral Harbour (Mar 07/01) - The hamlet of Coral Harbour has taken a step to rid itself of some ravens.
The Department of Community Government and Transportation's (CG&T) director for the Kivalliq Region, Shawn Maley, recently visited Coral to look into the raven situation.
He found the hamlet had obtained a permit through its HTO and wildlife office to kill some of the ravens.
"They shot about 10 of them and left the carcasses around and it seems to have been effective in scaring the other ravens away from the area," says Maley.
Coral Harbour was never a home to ravens until four or five years ago.
Coral residents think the influx of ravens was a result of the caribou harvest, which started at about the same time the birds began to appear.
The harvest provides a source of food for the ravens.
Then, this past year, rock had to be blasted to expand Coral's water reservoir.
The blasting created a small rock face where ravens like to congregate.
The number of ravens increased to the point where their droppings were starting to pile up noticeably high.
Residents became worried that once the spring melt hits, the droppings will end up in their water supply.
"I explained to council the filters and chlorination on their water supply would ensure any droppings that did get into the water supply wouldn't affect their health.
"But, they feel that's not the point and I tend to agree with them. Nobody would be comfortable with bird droppings in their water."
Maley says he discussed a plan with council to clean up the current mess, as well as bringing in a bird-strike expert from the Calgary Airport Authority to show them how to deal with the ravens.
"If the solution the hamlet has already employed remains effective, we're going to stick with it.
"If not, we'll have to conduct a formalized approach of bringing one of the bird-strike experts in."
CG&T has committed to providing about $5,000 to clean up the existing mess.
The money will be used as wages for people to be hired to shovel the droppings into buckets and haul it to the sewage lagoon.
Maley says CG&T will move back into Coral should the ravens continue to be a problem.
"That reservoir isn't even open yet and we're still five months away from melt.
"It's attached to the old one and we still have to break down the barrier between the two, so there's no danger of it affecting their water supply at this point in time."
