Comments regarding :…

Comments regarding :
Proposal to establish a hunting season for double-crested cormorants in Ontario - No. 013-4124

I have reviewed the proposal and comments of other groups regarding this matter and am submitting the following. The long standing concern over the presence of cormorants and the increase in population across Ontario has been controversial for various reasons. The strategy used in your proposal is poorly explained and likely to fail if implemented as planned.

The proposal does not provide sufficient information about the population across the province, estimates about the number of kills expected, the effect on other wildlife and may other questions the public or experts may have.

The high daily bag limit, over a long season, during the prime cottage and boating period is surely going to capture the attention of many people. Shooting cormorants during the summer from a stationary boat on an Ontario lake is not easy to explain to many of us. The lake I boat on, has a colony of them on an island where many boaters go by. The public safety of these boaters and cottagers may indeed be at risk. The diverging views of groups and individuals may cause some public reaction as hunters hunt in such public places. The high daily bag limit also produce undesired results. It relies on the actions of individual hunters to either wipe out all the cormorants on a lake or not do anything.

I find that the proposal does not provide for an adequate discussion of the issue and a serious dialogue about the options. It leaves me to believe that the ministry has simply given up. Many groups and individuals have asked for some controls and I understand their concerns, but this proposal does not address the problem appropriately.