Please consider these…

Please consider these comments on this proposal:
According to the information posted on the EBR, this hunt has been proposed as being in response to "concerns expressed by some groups (commercial fishing industry, property owners) and individuals that cormorants have been detrimental to fish populations, island forest habitats, other species and aesthetics". “Concerns” are not science-based fact or evidence. Links should be provided to the applicable science-based evidence. Many of these “concerns” are partially or substantially unjustified, exaggerated or very localized.
According to the information posted on the EBR the hunt would be allowed "from a stationary motorboat". Even a non-motorized boat is not entirely stable in the water and this could lead to inhumane injuries rather than clean kills, and 'accidental' miss-hits on nearby non-target species.
The posting notes that hunters "could allow cormorant to spoil". This would be an unprecedented, careless and inconsiderate threat to human and environmental health. It is an unethical and irresponsible hunting practice. Retrieval and disposal can simply not be properly monitored on a province-wide, 10 month hunt. Cormorant carcasses washing up on shorelines would create environmental and human health issues, as well as aesthetic and other collateral damage issues. Shoreline property owners should not be subject to having to assume responsibility for the irresponsible effects of an ill-conceived proposal.
The posting notes the proposal would “establish a bag limit of 50 cormorants/day with no possession limit”. This, combined with the provision to allow cormorant to spoil, could cause water pollution, health, aesthetic and ethical issues.
Hunters will be "reminded to avoid conflicts with migratory game birds and other waterbirds". It does not state that breeding sites be avoided. With cormorants nesting amongst other colonial-nesting and island-nesting species, some of which are species of concern the risk potential for ”disturbance“ of other species is extremely high. Any disturbance anywhere in the vicinity of other species during nesting season would constitute a ‘’conflict’’ capable of disrupting if not destroying their breeding cycles. With proposed hunt dates from March 15 to December 31, nesting season is not being avoided. Chicks of colonial-nesting and island-nesting species could be left parentless & abandoned leading to slow and inhumane death by starvation.
The posting indicates that cormorant populations are “currently stabilized and even on the decline” and that the “anticipated environmental consequences of the proposal are expected to be neutral”. These statements confirm that an open season hunt would not be an essential “population management tool”.
The cormorant is being used as a scapegoat for broader environmental problems. No wildlife management plan should be proposed in the absence of consideration of all factors involved including climate change, pollution, control of invasive species, over-fishing, etc. These factors are not mentioned or addressed in this proposal.
This is not hunting in the time-honoured, traditional sense - for food, for the love of being in the great outdoors, with high respect for human, animal and environmental safety, and based on fair play and good sportsmanship. It is a hunt that promotes a killing-field mentality. No respectable, ethical hunter would engage in this type of free-for-all. It is irresponsible of the government to promote this form of slaughter, let alone hand it over to the general public to deal with under the auspices of a “gamebird hunt” or "wildlife management".