I have read the government's…

I have read the government's proposal to institute a hunting season for the double-crested cormorant.

I find it poorly thought through and unnecessary. By the government's own admission numbers are declining based on the last censuses. So why cause further imbalance to the natural processes starting to balance out the population? It makes no sense.

The government's proposal does not reflect accepted or sound wildlife management approaches and techniques. It provides no current scientific basis or planning for scientific management. It is responding to opinion and whim of those who will not live in a reasonable co-existence with wildlife, but simply see wildlife as something that can and should be killed. The daily bag limit is an anathema to wildlife management principles and the provision for letting carcasses rot after appropriate disposal is simply something out of the dark ages. and is morally reprehensible. The proposed hunting season goes through out the breeding season and contravenes principles of scientific management and humanness as nesting and rearing will be disturbed and undue pain and suffering caused to adults and nestlings alike. As well the proposed hunting season would be in effect when there is a maximized use of lake waters by a multitude of other users for recreation, transport and scientific study. This will in effect establish an unsafe condition for non-hunters.

Science has shown that Newcastle disease is sweeping through the Great Lakes basin population of double crested cormorants. This natural event has been rapidly reducing population increases for the past 2-3 years through the impact of killing off most nestlings and some adults. This population reduction is a natural event and will cease more or less when the population balances out with the resources available to support it.

I urge and request the government to cancel this proposal and to immediately institute scientific research so that management of double-crested cormorants, if required, might proceed in a rational and scientific way instead of the way it is currently proposed.