This is a bad idea…

This is a bad idea.

Cormorants have been heavily persecuted because of perceived impacts, even at times when there were less than 1000 pairs in all of Ontario and they were on the verge of extinction. Special interest groups continue to view them as nuisance and direct competition for resources they have no demonstrable effect on and whether they are present or not. The reality is cormorants are part of a complex food web and removing them will have a knock on effect in lowering general biodiversity in Ontario. With an open season like the one described, one single person can decide to take out an entire colony of cormorants even if the majority of stakeholders on the water body disagree. This is a bad move. Instead, the province should study cormorants in their habitat over multiple years to get a real idea of their role in the ecosystem and only remove them when they pose a specific threat that can be substantiated. I guarantee you that there is at least one person per lake that will make it their mission to eradicate cormorants.

Rebounding cormorants have had over 40 years to negatively affect fish populations and they haven't. Now, as predicted, cormorant populations are stabilizing via vectors such as Newcastle disease. An open season will disrupt this process.

The following is a non exhaustive list of species that have already been devastated or extirpated by human activity in Ontario. A number of these species were extirpated by the very groups that want to delist cormorants. I don't want to see more biodiversity gone forever:
Passenger Pigeon, Timber Rattlesnake, Eastern Box Turtle, Lake Ontario Kiyi, Blue Walleye, Atlantic Salmon, Paddlefish, Gravel Chub, Deepwater Cisco, Blackfin Cisco, Shortnose Cisco, Loggerheaded Shrike, Greater Prairie Chicken, Illinois tick-trefoil, butternut, american chestnut, american elm, and ash trees, American burying beetle, Trumpeter Swan, American Badger, Blanding's Turtle, Frosted Elfin, Karner Blue, eastern Elk, eastern cougar, carolina parakeet.