The government's hunting…

The government's hunting proposal is gratuitous, irresponsible, and cruel. In particular, the proposal to allow hunters to kill 50 cormorants per day could feasibly permit the eradication of the entire species from the Great Lakes in a single year, assuming below average hunter engagement. More specifically, if only 1 in 100 Ontarian hunters each killed only 50 cormorants over an entire hunting season, this would still be enough to eradicate the species from the Great Lakes entirely. The Double-crested Cormorant is a native species to Ontario whose population has only recently recovered from human persecution and pollution-induced declines. This is no time to be stepping backwards. This species has a right to exist and feed on its native land, and the government has an ethical and legal responsibility to ensure its relative health.

Ethically speaking, such a proposition is unacceptably inhumane and could easily destroy the relative health that this species' population has only recently begun to enjoy.

Do the math: The Canadian Nature Survey (FPTGC, 2014) reports that about 709,500 Ontarians participate in hunting activities. If only 1 in every 100 of these hunters participated in this type of kill, this would lead to nearly 8 million dead cormorants in a single year alone, not adjusting for nestling and fledglings mortality due to parental death [Calculation note: 14,190,000 x 5% = 709,500 number of hunters in Ontario (5% of total Ontario population figure taken from the Canadian Nature Survey - FPTGC, 2014). 1 in 100 hunters: 709,500 x 1% = 7095. This many hunters killing 50 cormorants a day for 22 days in a year: 7095 x 50 x 22 = 7,804,500 cormorants dead.]. The entire Great Lakes population is estimated at only about 250,000 birds, and the entire global population is estimated at about 2 million (Dorr et al. 2014).