Please reject the proposed…

Please reject the proposed cormorant hunt in its entirety.

Allowing such a high number of birds to be killed per hunter, per day, and over such a long season, means that just one person could potentially kill 14,600 cormorants in a year. It is not possible to manage such a hunt sustainably.

A species is not “overpopulated” just because it appears to be common. Cormorants are a native species that have finally returned to their natural level of abundance, after recovering from human-caused harm. The fact that the population has stabilized without human intervention is a sign that natural forces are working as they should. Adding hunting now can only cause a decrease in the population – the hunt would undo a hard-won conservation success. Having cormorants present again has been beneficial to the ecosystem as a whole. Killing cormorants would remove the pressure they put on the invasive fish species they help control, which would be detrimental to native fish stocks and aquatic ecosystems generally.

Sound conservation management involves ensuring that sustainable populations of native wildlife continue to thrive in Ontario. This proposal will ensure that a native species declines quickly, reversing its recovery, and benefitting non-native, harmful fish species that will lose their best predator. There is no science supporting the claims made by those who advocate for the hunt. Disliking an animal, “aesthetics”, and seeing more of something than one used to (even when it is a species recovering from a previous near-extinction), are not acceptable reasons to slaughter animals. It is the opposite of ecologically responsible. If adopted, this proposal would set responsible conservation management back decades.

Please choose to manage Ontario’s ecosystems in a responsible, sustainable, and ethical way by rejecting this proposal.