Cormorant populations have…

Cormorant populations have stabilized or are decreasing slightly. That is what the proposal states.
According to the new proposal anyone with a hunting license can legally kill 50 cormorants a day for 9.5 months of the year. Thus, under this proposal one person can kill over 14000 cormorants legally in 2019. That's enough to exterminate the largest population on the great lakes. Even if one individual hunts only on weekends, that could result in over 4000 birds being killed. Thus, the largest population in Ontario could be wiped out by four hunters hunting only on weekends. That assumes legal hunting. It seems clear that there are people more than willing to slaughter as many cormorants as possible, the hatred of them being so extreme. Will such folks really restrict themselves to 50 a day?
The reasons for the hunt are largely that cormorants kill trees and their population increase coincides with a decrease in the fish that anglers like to catch. The easiest way to get cormorants away from trees at a particular site is to disturb them during the nesting season. That could provide employment for a few people in each area where cormorant nests are considered problematic. As for cormorants causing a decline in important fish stocks - what is the evidence? The number of environmental changes coincident with the timeline of cormorant number increase and the decline of some fish species is enormous: warming of the waters, spread of alien invasive species, introduction of various sport fish to stocked lakes.
There are no safeguards in the proposal to make sure that hunters are not firing near populated areas, near where recreational lake use is taking place, that they are not killing birds that might appear similar to cormorants in silhouette (such as loons) and there is absolutely no indication that any resources will be applied to either ensure that the limits are being adhered to or that the hunt is having the desired effect (unless the desired effect is really extermination of populations of a NATIVE Canadian bird).
The weakening of legislation to permit the hunting of a non-game species is a real slippery slope. What will come next? Hunting of raccoons or gulls because they are a nuisance?
This whole proposal lacks a serious scientific basis, opens the door to extirpation of what has been something of a conservation success story, is potentially dangerous for people involved in recreational use of lakes and shores, has no plans for the enforcement of limits and as there is no plan for checking its success or reducing its impact if cormorant populations decline drastically, there is the serious risk of large scale extirpation of a native bird species.
The proposal needs to be entirely rewritten in a way that makes it clear that: 1) only those areas of the province where cormorants have been shown to be a serious issue have cormorant impact mitigation efforts undertaken - this will require prior scientific demonstration that large numbers of cormorants are THE cause of the decline of any valuable fish stock and 2) that the nest site issue be solved in ways that are safe for people in the surrounding area - such as disturbance of the cormorant nests in the trees where the trees are being impacted - rather than unleashing at least 50 rounds of fire per hunter per day. Furthermore, IF any hunting of cormorants is to be permitted, it should take place outside of the timeline of the breeding season of any other bird species that nests near them - such as gulls and herons, to reduce unintended declines of non target birds.