Hello. This new government…

Hello. This new government has won my respect for several reasons. However, this proposal to control the Double-crested Cormorant population is not one of them. As a professional biologist I am very concerned. As someone who respects hunters, I am concerned too. I believe that hunters are an important component of the electorate, and demographically I would expect they have a lot in common with Conservative voters. I fear that they will find this plan is insulting to their sport. What you are proposing is not hunting. You are proposing a cull. I would even go so far as to call it an extermination plan. You should call it what it is and not try to fool people with words. If there is a "hunter" who likes your proposal, I would call them simply someone who wants to do a lot of killing. Why would you want to call Double-crested Cormorants a game species? Game species are supposed to be desired as food, challenging to hunt, and failing both of those reasons, charming trophies. Cormorants are not "game".

As a professional biologist in the field of wildlife, I worry about your plan for several reasons. I would like to say that I doubt that any of your very talented wildlife biologists had a hand in crafting it, but I really do not want to believe that could be the case. Double-crested Cormorant is a colonial nesting species. They nest at sites shared with other colonial nesting species. Where is the plan to protect the other species? You want to allow "open season" during nesting season. I might trust a real, ethical hunter to avoid the non-target species, but I suspect only less ethical hunters will go for this so-called hunt and will hit non-target species either through carelessness or lack of knowledge.

Where are the data that will show how this "hunt" will control the population such that we will still have a reasonable population of Double-crested Cormorants afterwards? How does the current Double-crested Cormorant population compare to the historical, pre-near-extirpation population? They are, after all, a part of Ontario's native biodiversity. It worries me that you have not presented these data up front so the public can consider it.

As someone concerned about language and society, I also worry about the way you are treating this so-called nuisance species. Underneath this plan, between the lines, I can read the utter disdain that people have for these birds, these birds that to them are an inconvenience. For a peaceful world we must learn to live and let live, not to go and shoot to bits anything that inconveniences us. I am not opposed to wildlife population management, but I would like my government to do it in an honest and ethical way, not in a way that warps the language and the law to suit the desires of the inconvenienced few.