HydroDeter is the dedicated log for every non-lethal deterrent action your fishery undertakes — scarers, lasers, human disturbance, barriers, visual deterrents. Every entry is GPS-tagged and time-stamped, building the habituation evidence that Natural England requires before granting an A06 lethal control licence.
Applying for an A06 cormorant control licence is structurally weighted toward evidence. Natural England needs to see that your fishery has deployed sustained, documented non-lethal measures and that the cormorants have habituated to them — meaning the measures aren't working anymore.
For most fisheries, "documented" has historically meant a shoebox of scarer receipts, some phone photos, and a fishery manager's best recollection. That evidence gets weaker the older it is.
HydroDeter fixes the documentation problem at the point of the action. Log it when you do it, in 30 seconds, with GPS and a photo. Two seasons later when the licence application goes in, the evidence is on file in a form Natural England can read.
- Fishery managers and bailiffs — anyone deploying deterrents as part of a management plan
- Water keepers and club bailiffs — regular patrol and disturbance activity counts too
- Club secretaries — you can use it to log deterrents deployed by members on your behalf
Anyone can access HydroDeter — it's not PIN-gated. But the tool is designed for practitioners doing genuine deterrent work, not one-off observations.
Two routes:
- From the Cormorant Report success screen, tap "Log a Deterrent Action" in the related tools panel
- Directly at
non_lethal.htmlin your browser
It's not on the main hub grid — we keep the hub clean for general public users.
- Method — pick the deterrent type:
- Laser
- Audible scarers (gas guns, bird scarers)
- Visual deterrents (kites, mannequins, reflective lines)
- Physical barriers (wires, nets, booms)
- Human disturbance (patrol, visits, activity)
- Other (with description)
- Target species. Usually cormorant, but the tool also accepts goosander, mergansers, and other relevant species.
- Date and time. Defaults to now.
- Duration. How long the action lasted or was active.
- Location. Postcode + what3words.
- Effectiveness rating. Your assessment:
- Birds dispersed immediately
- Birds dispersed after minutes
- Birds moved slightly
- Birds ignored the deterrent
- Birds returned within minutes / hours / days
This is the critical field for the habituation evidence — it's literally the metric Natural England care about. Be honest, even when the honest answer is "no effect."
- Photo evidence. Optional but strongly recommended. A photo of the deterrent in place (laser handset, scarer device, mannequin) alongside the water is worth a thousand words at application time.
- Notes. Anything distinctive. Bird behaviour, follow-up plans, equipment issues.
- Submit.
Over months of HydroDeter use, a fishery builds up:
- A map of every deterrent deployment (GPS)
- A timeline of effort (date and duration)
- A record of declining effectiveness over time (the habituation evidence)
- A photographic library of deterrents actually in use
When the A06 application goes in, that evidence is compiled automatically into the submission pack. The document that used to take a fishery manager a fortnight to assemble from paper comes out in minutes.