I object to the proposed …

I object to the proposed "hunting season" for cormorants.

The proposal seeks to legalize the hunting of a species that has neither a sport nor food value associated with it, as evidenced by the proposal to allow "wastage" of cormorants killed in this manner.
Cormorants, to my knowledge, have not been demonstrated to dramatically affect sport fish species on any lakes where their colonies have been established. Yes they eat fish but analysis of stomach contents from colonies studied on Lake Nipissing, Ontario revealed that the vast majority of fish species consumed where not those the anglers sought. (Not large quantities of walleye, pike or bass but rather perch, shiners, and other minnow species). What's more, colonies once established, began a decline to stable population levels that seem to be in harmony with the environment.

I am a hunter. Hunting to me involves the ethical and humane harvest of an animal one intends to eat or to make use of for some other legitimate purpose. (Hides for leather, etc.) Hunting involves respect for the life of any animal you are taking.

This proposal to hunt cormorants seems to be fed by a desire to eliminate the bird from areas where it is being blamed for sport fish population declines, without the scientific studies to back that claim.
To kill for the sake of killing is not what hunting is about and legalizing cormorant culling through hunting regulations is in my opinion a poor way to walk away from doing the research required to determine if the problem is actually real or imagined.

Hunting is on the decline in Ontario as more and more folks chose not to participate in this historic activity. Please do not give our sport another black eye in the public forum by passing this legislation. There is no way to justify this to those that do not hunt. This will simply create more opposition to hunting in the future, a pressure our sport does not need.

I suspect that most people supporting this initiative are those bent on removing cormorants from the environment entirely. A summer hunt with a 50 bird "daily?" limit will allow participants to kill the birds in nesting colonies. The lack of a requirement to utilize the killed birds may well result in increased complaints of dead cormorants found rotting on the water or islands by summer tourists. Tourists not interested in seeing birds killed and wasted out of what I consider a misguided attempt to cover up MNRF's failure to properly manage the fisheries.

Thank you