I strongly oppose the…

I strongly oppose the Ontario Government's plan to establish a permanent hunting season for double-crested cormorants. As the cormorants are absent from Ontario in the winter, the proposed "season" is essentially year long. The year long season obviously includes the nesting season and this, together with the bag "limit" of thousands of birds per hunter per year, will undoubtedly ensure that double-crested cormorants are heading towards extirpation in Ontario within a few years. This is not only an extreme environmental insult to the cormorants but also threatens other species which nest in the same areas as cormorants. Further, the plan is quite frankly dangerous. Allowing hunters to shoot alongside recreational boaters over the spring and summer will surely result in human injury sooner or later. The proposal to permit this essentially unlimited hunt and then "review" it - once the birds are all but eliminated? - is thoroughly disingenuous. If commercial and other fisherman must be appeased - landowners are permitted to cull anyway if their property is being damaged - a limited fall hunting season along the lines of a duck hunting season should be established and reviewed for effect.