Fragile Inheritance Natural…

Fragile Inheritance Natural History (FINH) is a family research institute dedicated to studying ecological change and advocating for sustainable biophilic human habitation of Canada. We accordingly strongly oppose the proposal to create a hunting season for Double-crested Cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus).

We notice that in the "Supporting Materials" section of the EBR page on this proposal there is no link to any evidence that Cormorants need to be controlled, and this is in agreement with the general understanding that there is no need to "control" the Cormorant populations which have come back after the banning of DDT.

There is, of course, a long history of "sports" fisherman calling for the "control" of Cormorants on the basis of the hypothesis that Cormorant predation is the reason they didn't catch anything on some particular outing. This has led to many studies of such predation - as recounted in the Cormorant song -

Oh to be Phalacrocorax,
Oh to give bass fishermen fits,
so they pick through all your castings,
and do isotopes on your shits.

- which have, of course, found that Cormorants do not cause reduced populations of sports fish. The fact that this hatred persists in the face of the data suggests that those who advocate for "control" of Cormorants are among those who need to sustain their sense of selfhood by having some enemy to hate. It's frequently seen that they're already shooting at Cormorants, as in the case of this one found on the beach in Burlington -

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_pmTzHVznnGY/TMCjoaNXdnI/AAAAAAAAAYk/eAQ8SWOCc… - "Protected by legislation from near extinction, Cormorants are hated by some fishermen, who regard them as competitors. This will be my subject for today's painting. On its other side I see an open wound, attesting to a violent death. It reminds me of the Gannet I painted at Cap Lumiere, New Brunswick." [the Gannet had also been shot, as had another on that beach].

Cormorants are as as close as any extant species to the ancestral modern Bird, and because of their statuesque loveliness, their co-operative foraging, the control they exert on invasive alien fishes, the grandeur of their breeding colonies, and the way they transfer nutrients from aquatic to terrestrial ecosystems, they deserve all and more of the protection and appreciation which they have traditionally had.

The proposal that they be slaughtered by "hunting" deserves to be treated as a mental heath disorder of a narrow hatred-motivated segment of the human population, and should inspire outreach to show the advocates of this slaughter how they can learn to appreciate and support Ontario's biota and ecosystems.