This is an interesting idea,…

This is an interesting idea, one that will definitely rock the boat.

I don't see cormorants as a great menace to our walleye populations (the studies I've looked at state that they pretty much eat rock bass and other panfish in addition to some forage fish) but I do see them as a threat to water quality (hey, all that guano can't be good).

My main interest in seeing this happen is to get these birds to move on from the shorelines they are visibly, totally destroying. The trees they roost in and the soil beneath their roosts become so whitewashed with guano that nothing grows there anymore. This is something I have observed in small inland lakes near Owen Sound and in places on the Lake Erie shoreline.

A hunt will help to reduce their numbers and to reclaim some of the shorelines they have been destroying. It may offer a modest boost to tourism as I know people from both sides of the border who would like to help reduce cormorant numbers. Of course I would want to see this carried out ethically and responsibly (as any other hunt should be, usually is) to ensure public safety is maximized and neighbourhood effects (noise and image of hunting is offensive to some) are minimized.

If there is a way to use these birds as table fare I would want that emphasized in the regulations in order to provide hunters with the information they need to safely consume these birds. I can't imagine they'd be all that different from some of the diving ducks that are hunted.