Establishing a hunting…

Establishing a hunting season for double-crested cormorants in Ontario with the current proposed parameters is both irresponsible and counterproductive to Great Lakes ecosystem management and conservation efforts. The per-day bag limit of 50 birds is far too high, and the potential for allowing all hunted birds to spoil leaves far too much potential for piles of dead birds rotting in areas where the cormorants would be hunted.

Additionally, the timing of the hunting is ludicrous. Other waterfowl, some which may be confused visually with cormorants for more inexperienced or less discerning hunters, for example diving duck species and loons, will be abundant within areas where the cormorants would be hunted. This sets up a strong potential for negative impacts upon these other species' populations, and many of them are also already under stress from other issues including habitat degradation and loss.

Cormorants are much-maligned in Ontario due to personal interactions with them on small scales- property owners, for instance, who observe short-term impacts of their feces. But there is little evidence for long-term impacts, since populations have only rebounded within the last few decades. There is no evidence that comparisons with other areas of long-term cormorant residency within the Great Lakes or otherwise has been done to speak to the establishment of this hunting season. In fact, it is noted in the opening paragraph that local cormorant populations have stabilized or declined after their recovery in the 1970s. Unfortunately, wildlife population trends need to be observed over a longer stretch of time for an animal that has a moderate rate of reproduction (1-7 chicks per brood, with 1-2 broods per year) and that lives to a max of ~17 years. We have had a mere 40-50 years since the populations of the Great Lakes began their recovery from the impacts of DDT use. The rate of hunting that has been proposed will likely wipe them out or come very close to doing so.

Instead of a public hunting season, if management involving culls are required in specific areas of highly degraded habitat, this should be carried out by OMNRF officials with the proper training and identification skills, to limit the impacts upon other species. However, even before this is pursued, there should be clear evidence that the claims of negative impacts on economically important fish species and habitats are indeed true and scientifically factual. Much evidence points to alewife being a large component of double-crested cormorant diets - an invasive species. Introduced game fish, like Chinook salmon, also feed upon alewife, but since chinook salmon are stocked in the lakes on a yearly basis, perhaps the real question should be - how can we find ways to support our native ecosystem, and make it resilient, rather than focusing on maintaining all of these populations of invasive and introduced species? There are still tons of stocked salmon for anglers to fish. But a healthy great lakes ecosystem requires more than just sport fishing species.

I am also inclined to point out the complete lack of consultation with local Indigenous Peoples about the double-crested cormorant, and the absence of Traditional Ecological Knowledge to inform this decision. If cormorants arrived in Lake Ontario only within the last 100 years, consultation and research should be conducted to confirm this is the case by consulting with Indigenous Knowledge Carriers, and again there must be a comparison with other areas in the Great Lakes and elsewhere to see what the long-term impacts of cormorants are on the ecosystems, and how they have been managed in the past. Looking at the current situation in isolation helps no one - applying this hunting season proposal without considering past and broader implications is short-sighted and weak-minded conservation and management, and is not the best choice for any Ontarians.