Cormorant Symbolism

The cormorant is found all over the world, with over 30 species. The common cormorant is also called the great or black cormorant. They are found mostly along coasts or inland waters.

They are expert swimmers and divers and can show us how to dive in and to swim where we wouldn't think possible, in almost any environment in our life.

Because cormorants are buoyant yet need to dive, they must swallow pebbles to make themselves heavy enough to stay under water. When it appears in our life there will come a teaching or a new opportunity that will enable us to accomplish what didn't seem possible.

In Japan, cormorants are trained for fishing. A metal ring is placed around their necks to prevent them from swallowing their catch. This is a reminder that we must learn to enjoy our accomplishments, our catches in life and not allow others to distract us from the enjoyment of our accomplishments.

When the cormorant is an individual's totem, the person will have a knack for accomplishing in unique ways what others could not seem to do. When it appears in our life as a message, it is a reminder for us to dive in to what we have been hesitating about. The cormorant teaches us how to dive into the waters of life creatively especially if we wish a new birth.

At sea, or on the inland lakes, they make a terrible havoc. From the greatest height they drop down upon the object of pursuit, dive after it with the rapidity of a dart, and with an almost unerring certainty, seize the victim. Then emerging, with the fish across the bill, with a kind of twirl, throw it up into the air and dexterously catching it head foremost, swallow it whole.

Among the Chinese, it is said, they have frequently been trained to fish, and that some fishermen keep many of them for that purpose, by which they gain a livelihood. "A ring, placed round the neck, hinders the bird from swallowing; its natural appetite joins with the will of its master, and it instantly dives at the word of command; when unable to gorge down the fish it has taken, it returns to the keeper, who secures it for himself. Sometimes, if the fish be too big for one to manage, two will act in concert, one taking it by the head and the other by the tail."

The Cormorants have been used as symbols of nobility, indulgence, and in more modern times a totem for fishermen and a bountiful catch.