The U.S. federal government plans to kill almost 11,000 double crested cormorant seabirds found on a small Oregon island as part of a conservation effort to save salmon, said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

This plan is now under review. When it does get final approval, state agricultural workers will shoot the birds and oil their nests to keep chicks from hatching come spring.

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This move was called for by NOAA when it released a Biological Opinion last year. The report suggested cutting the crested cormorant seabird population from 13,000 breeding pairs to just 6,000 by 2018.

Officials report the birds are eating all the juvenile salmon and are placing the fish population at risk. Salmon are already listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

U.S. Army Corps spokesperson Diana Fredlund says this plan is preferred over another alternative that orders the killing of 18,000 birds by 2018.

Fredlund admits this is a very difficult situation to be in as the government and other involved parties are trying to balance defending salmon and the steelhead against the birds. It took a very long time to analyze the situation and a lot of experts weighed in on the situation.

The corps also considered hazing or herding the birds to get them out of the island but Fredlund said the problem will just be transferred to another area. She says this is a serious regional problem and shooing the birds off the island is just letting it become another region's problem.

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