Our cottage is near an area…

Our cottage is near an area in Northern Ontario where there exists many double-crested cormorants.

Your proposed time-frame of an "open season" on these birds, coupled with the number of persons fishing and kayaking etc. in this area (narrow channels and multiple islands), poses a high risk of a shooting accident. In addition, the concept of hunting them from a stationary boat in this area just enhances the risk.

A better approach, if these birds are considered a nuisance, would be to oil the eggs in their nests to reduce the population.

Ironically, the large roost of birds in this area has not spoiled the sport fishing at all, so I believe you are being misled.

I would strongly suggest that if you are going to move forward with sport hunting of the cormorant, that you make the rules significantly more restrictive to reduce the risk to the public.

It should be noted that as this comment will be of public record, in the case of an accident, it would be available for discovery in a potential lawsuit or criminal charges against public officials sanctioning this change in the cormorant status to a game bird, without putting the proper controls in place to protect the public.