Dear Sir or Madam:I was…

Dear Sir or Madam:I was shocked to hear of the proposed change in the law to make the Double-crested Cormorant a game bird. This is nonsense. Nobody eats them. It is a new attempt to tamper with nature and regulate bird numbers.
The fact that the suggested limit is 50 (!) and that the law will be changed so that one will not have to keep and eat the birds shows that this has nothing to do with game.
Please leave the birds alone. Any attempt to decimate the species is short-sighted. Less than half a century ago they were rather uncommon - and they will be again when nature corrects their number.
As you know there was a massive cull on Middle Island. The idea was to protect certain rare Carolinian flora. Ironically the flora was only there because it had established itself on soil formed from Cormorant guano over the centuries. The cull was short-sighted, the result of thinking only of the present.
We already find cormorants that have been shot by duck hunters washed up on beaches. Please do not give them the legal right to kill these birds and let them rot in the water.