I am an avid hunter and a …

I am an avid hunter and a “birder” and I find this proposed regulation concerning, ridiculous and I am opposed to opening a hunting season for cormorants the way it is proposed. Below are some of my concerns/reasons.
1. The MNR wants to list a Cormorant as a game bird under the FWCA. Game bird to me, means something that edible i.e. grouse, pheasant etc. The proposed legislation would allow waste of the flesh of the Cormorant – not typical of a game bird. I would thus assume they are not edible or desirable to eat, something someone would like to eat like a grouse etc. They should not be listed as game bird what I have been grown up to believe a game bird is.
2. I believe that allowing cormorants to be shot from a boat, at their nest sites during the breeding/nesting season is totally against ethical hunting – fair chase. Furthermore at their nest sites Cormorants nests are often next to other birds from including gulls, terns, and Pelicans. Disturbance at nest sites by excessive noise from a shotgun, a person walking on shore at the nesting colonies to hunt or a boat next to island in the act of killing Cormorants would allow predatory birds to eat the young or eggs. Birds would temporarily abandon their nests and Herring Gulls and Black-billed Gulls will predate the nests of Cormorants as well neighbouring species nests like the White Pelican. It will radically reduce Cormorant populations and species that co nest as there will be no recruitment due to the Predatory birds. In Ontario the White Pelicans is listed as a threatened species. In Northwestern Ontario, on Lac Seul east of Ear Falls, Ontario, White Pelicans nest next to Cormorants on Cormorant Island. Any disturbance by man at this nesting colony will wipe out recruitment of all nesting specie on the island including White Pelicans.
3. I understand there are issues with numbers of Pelicans on the Great Lakes. I believe, if that is the case, then a cull should take place by a limited hunt or some other method used to reduce numbers. Or at least shoot Cormorants in problem areas, prior to nesting season or well after birds have fledged in the fall. Allowing "hunters" to randomly kill Cormorants at their nest site would threaten the specie and other species that nest at the same island. This goes against ethical hunting where normally birds are hunted outside the nesting season. This will feed ammunition to anti-hunting groups and will give hunters and hunting a terrible name. This is unsportsmanlike and not what hunting or our hunting heritage is about. Again a limited cull could be implemented in problem areas but not open to anyone with a small game licence. Perhaps this proposed legislation being so liberal is designed so it fails and is not truly supported by the MNR.