This is a proposal for a…

This is a proposal for a cormorant cull not a hunting season. Allowing hunters to kill up to 50 cormorants a day with no limit, which makes it effectively unenforceable, and no requirement to use the meat is not hunting. Instead it's legal permission for those who hate cormorants, with the appropriate licences, to kill off entire colonies.

This proposal should be called what it is, a cormorant cull instead of what it isn't, hunting. Serious, responsible hunters would never take more than they could eat or so many that it endangers local animal populations. While some hunters might take advantage of the chance to hunt cormorants this proposal is very clearly aimed at those who want to destroy entire cormorant colonies. There is no other justification for the terms this proposal other than colony elimination.

While cormorant colonies aren't pretty and not pleasant to visit they are a natural part of our ecosystem and deserving of their place in it. Not every part of our natural environment needs to exist just for the enjoyment of humans. Cormorants have only recently somewhat recovered their historical numbers. That's an environmental success story, not something that needs to be undone.

Knowing that cormorants have recovered their population levels I supported allowing a hunting season for them when I first heard of it. However the details of this proposal completely changed my mind. If this proposal goes ahead it will bring the sport of hunting into disrepute, it already faces enough PR problems from trophy "hunters".