Province considering hunting season for double-crested cormorants
A proposed hunting season for double-crested cormorants starting next year is being welcomed by the Port Colborne and District Conservation Club, Ontario Commercial Fisheries’ Association and Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters.
“We’re definitely for it,” said conservation club treasurer
Scott McQuire of the bird that causes ecological damage in areas where it nests and eats up to a half-kilogram of fish a day.
McQuire remembers being on the breakwall in Port Colborne in the late ’60s and seeing the odd double-crested cormorant out there but said their numbers have blown up in the Niagara area in the past 25 years or more.
Lauren Tonelli, Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters (OFAH) resources management specialist, said the species were first spotted in Ontario and the Great Lakes in the late 1800s but were fairly isolated.
“In the past few decades they have expanded … they are quite widespread across the Great Lakes and are now moving into inshore lakes. That’s a newer issue. Those lakes have smaller ecosystems, so they have less habitat to lose,” said Tonelli.
She said there hasn’t been a recent survey on the number of double-crested cormorants in Ontario and added the government’s proposal does include a population study.
“We’ve been asking the government for cormorant control for more than a decade and we’re very happy they finally recognizing it’s an issue and taking action on it,” she said.
Last week, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry posted a notice on Environment Registry of Ontario’s website about the proposed hunt. The registry notifies residents about environmental matters in the province that could affect them and allows people to comment.
The notice said the ministry was proposing the hunt in response to concerns raised by the commercial fishing industry, property owners and individuals that cormorants have been detrimental to fish populations, island forest habitats, other species and esthetics.
The province would list the species as a game bird, allowing hunters with outdoors card and small game licences to hunt them, with an open season from March 15 to Dec. 31 each year.
A bag limit of 50 cormorants per day with no possession limit would be established, and shotgun and shot size and type requirements consistent with migratory bird hunting regulations outlined in federal migratory birds regulations would be prescribed.
Tonelli said the birds nest in trees and strip the bark off to make their nests, causing damage to the trees.
“Their guano is very acidic … it kills all the plants and vegetation under the trees,” she said.
McGuire said the colony double-crested cormorants on the breakwall in Port Colborne destroyed what few trees there were in the rocky area on the north side.
He said the birds also drove off the common tern colony on the breakwall, which the club spent a few years trying to reestablish and grow along with former Brock University professor
Ralph Morris.
While the 45-member conservation club is in favour of the hunt, McGuire said one aspect of the proposal allowing for the birds to be left in place to spoil once shot is not something it would like to see.
“They should be taken somewhere where they can be disposed of,” he said, adding there are places that would take the dead birds for feed for other animals.
McGuire said they go after species that anglers target as well, such as muskie and pike. They also go after minnows, perch and walleye.
McGuire said the double-crested cormorants have destroyed fishing inside Gravelly Bay.
“The bay is a mess … there’s nothing there,” he said.
Jane Graham, executive director of the Ontario Commercial Fisheries’ Association, said the species is very destructive when it comes to the commercial fishing industry in Ontario.
“They are a real issue at the east end of Lake Ontario, on Lake Huron and its North Channel and on Lake Erie,” said Graham.
She said the birds are reported to dive down some 20 metres to go after fish and will take fish right from nets set in the lake if they can.
Even taking only a half-kilogram of fish a day from the lake, Graham said that still cuts into what’s out there for the commercial fishing industry, which is a $40- to $50-million-a-year industry on Lake Erie.
“We’d like to see some type of control,” Graham said, adding in areas where they have been controls there has been a positive effect on the fishery.
Tonelli said not only would fisheries rebound with fewer cormorants but so, too, would the overall ecosystem.
“A managed population would see less ecological damage.”
Asked whether oiling doublecrested cormorant eggs would work to control the population, Tonelli said it is not as effective and does not target adult birds. Oiling eggs keeps air from getting inside and prevents anything from hatching.
To view the ministry’s proposal, see all of the details and to comment on it before the Jan. 3, 2019, deadline, visit ero.ontario.ca/notice/013-4124.