I am writing to urge you to…

I am writing to urge you to please NOT go ahead with the proposal to allow and encourage the killing of double-crested cormorants in Ontario.

This proposal will push cormorants back to the brink of extinction, for not reason other than to satisfy a radical group of anti-cormorant fisherman.

Increased hunting and killing of cormorants will cause damaging levels of disturbance and destruction to many other non-target species as well, damaging entire ecosystems. The presence of cormorants benefits other colonial water birds, such as herons, egrets and pelicans, all of which are stable or growing where cormorants are found.

It will also put tourists at risk as it allows for hunting during popular tourist seasons in our parks and natural spaces.

All of this for no reason, as there is no substantive body of evidence proving that cormorants are depleting fish stocks or causing any ecological problems whatsoever.
The reality is that cormorants are a natural part of Ontario’s rich biodiversity and an ecologically beneficial species, being major predators of invasive fish species, like round gobies and alewives, attracting other waterbirds to their nesting sites, and serving other important functions in the ecosystems they inhabit.

Far from being overabundant, cormorant numbers are relatively modest, have stabilized and are dropping in some areas.

Finally, there is no way to kill cormorants humanely. Even controlled, organized culls in other regions have resulted in large numbers of injured and crippled birds being left to die of their wounds or starve to death, including nestlings. Please do not let this happen.