Please do not list the…

Please do not list the double-crested cormorant as a game bird.

This initiative appears to be an unnecessary and extreme response to concerns that may be unfounded. It has become popular to blame cormorants for all kinds of ills. It takes the focus away from the damage humans have inflicted on aquatic ecosystems by over-fishing, introducing foreign species, and polluting. I think cormorants are being used unfairly as scapegoats.

The proposed hunting season (March 15 to December 31) is far too long.

Hunting will disturb all kinds of other wildlife including species at risk that nest in the same areas as the cormorants.

The bag limit is too high. At 50 cormorants per day per person, cormorants could become locally extinct before the Ministry has a chance to review the numbers and adjust the limits.

The hunting will disturb people and will pit those who love nature against those who don't.

Where is the proof that they have wreaked so much damage on fish stocks that they deserve to be hunted to such an extreme?

The argument that cormorants are responsible for the loss of island forest habitats is laughable considering how many island forest habitats are lost or have been lost due to farming, forestry and cottagers.

I am not in a position to comment on whether or not they are affecting commercial fish stocks, but I would hope that scientific studies would take place before making the regulatory and legislative amendments that have been proposed under ERO 013-4124. Legislation that impacts nature and the environment needs to be based on evidence, not perception.

I am very much against this proposal, but if it is to be implemented, I hope that some of the proposed amendments would be drastically modified.