I am writing to comment on…

I am writing to comment on the Proposal to establish a hunting season for double-crested cormorants in Ontario, ERO number 013-4124. This does not make any sense to me and I am hoping that you will reconsider.

As you know, the double-crested cormorant was endangered in previous years, I believe primarily due to DDT usage. Now that DDT is not being used, the double-crested cormorant population has increased, but according to the information in your proposal has now plateaued and even decreased slightly. There has been a lot of energy expended in helping this bird to recover from the devastation that it experienced, and to now undue what has been accomplished makes no sense to me.

I am not a fan of hunting, in general, but I can support it if it is done in order to feed the hunter and his/her family. What is being proposed is not that, it is killing for the sake, for the pleasure (????) of killing. Why on earth is there a proposal being made for that? It takes little to no skill to go to a nesting sight and start blasting away. That isn't hunting, is it?

Allowing people to kill these birds, indiscriminately seems dangerous to other species that are nesting in the same area, and also to people in the area as I see that this killing is to be allowed through the summer months. I believe that these birds nest in the same areas as people have their cottages. Surely we don't want guns being shot when there is a possibility of people being in the same space.

I understand that sometimes a species will become over-populated and may need to be culled in one area or another, and that is the job of the MNRF. It is about carefully determining the number of birds to be culled and then culling only that number. What you are proposing is nothing like that, it is allowing people to determine where they will kill the birds and how many they will kill over time. I see that this could easily progress to a time that the double-crested cormorant would again be endangered. We are hearing every day about species of animals the world over, that are becoming extinct. Surely to goodness we don't want to contribute to the horrifying statistics that are emerging.

Please reconsider and withdraw this horrible proposal.