I am opposed to the opening…

I am opposed to the opening of a hunting season on Double-crested Cormorants, especially with the extraordinary bag limits and extended hunting season. It would make it legal for anyone who hates these birds to wipe out a colony at will. This measure, encouraging people to kill native wildlife for no other reason than to be rid of it, will bring hunters into disrepute.

Right off the top, the Proposal Details on the government site states that Great Lakes populations have "stabilized or declined." There is therefore no pressing environmental reason for this measure. This is no way to deal with what has become, in some places and for some people, a wildlife nuisance problem.

In an era when wildlife numbers are in general decline, to have a native species flourishing in Ontario is a good thing. Large flocks of Cormorants and their colonial nesting sites are wildlife spectacles; surely we have room for them in this province, and can share with them the fish they must eat in order to live.