I have read the scientific…

I have read the scientific paper that documented the return of the Double-crested Cormorant on Lake Ontario and I object in the strongest possible terms to this proposal. Your own proposal document indicates that the population has stabilized or declined slightly. There is every good indication that your proposed measures will make the “problem” worse, not better. Shooting cormorants at a nesting colony could readily cause surviving cormorants to initiate new nesting sites elsewhere, thereby increasing the number of nesting sites.
Decades of research on cormorants, all over the world, have shown that they do not significantly impact game fish populations. In fact, stomach content analyses usually show that a high proportion of the diet is composed of fish that fisherman don’t want to catch. Where are the published data that support the need to cull cormorants in Ontario?

Cormorants are again a vital part of Ontario’s ecosystem and this proposal for such a slaughter (daily scale and duration) is completely out of sync with best wildlife management practices.
If this proposal is implemented, the proposed shooting of nesting cormorants must be restricted to sites where no birds protected under the federal Migratory Birds Convention Act are nesting. Many cormorant nesting sites are associated with nests of protected species, such as herons. Shooting cormorants in mixed colonies is likely to disrupt nesting of those species – a prohibited activity.
If cormorants are a genuine problem in a specific area, then the Ministry should send its own employees to solve the problem. Opening up the Game and Fish Act in this manner will have detrimental consequences to your Ministry’s scientific credibility in the future.

Even assuming that a hunter was able to shoot his limit for half the number of days permitted, the magnitude of the permitted kill is simply too great. Furthermore, not requiring the hunter to collect and properly dispose of the birds shot will lead to the spectacle and smell of rotting flesh on beaches. That is simply not a good housekeeping practice nor is it good wildlife management.