I have been sailing on Lake…

I have been sailing on Lake Ontario for more than 25 years and have noted the dramatic increase in the cormorant population in the past 15 years in the Toronto area, which now has the largest cormorant breeding population in North America, according to news reports. Cormorant flocks that fly past our boat are so large that they take up to 10 minutes to pass by. I have also seen how these birds have destroyed trees on Tommy Thompson park in Toronto. The smell created by their nests has made it inadvisable for boats to anchor in the Aquatic Park on the Leslie Spit. I am wholly in favour of a proposal by the Ministry of Natural Resources to create a hunting season for cormorants that, hopefully, would drastically reduce the population of these birds.