Ontario’s cormorant hunt is not based on science

Few bird species divide the hearts of humans as quickly as the double-crested cormorant. On my daily walks at Ashbridge’s Bay in Toronto, I look at the comical waterfowl with the bright orange face and neon turquoise eyes and think Archaeopteryx, a birdlike dinosaur that lived in the Jurassic period, about 150 million years ago. In fact, there is fossil evidence of this cormorant species going back to the Pleistocene Epoch, beginning 2.6 million years ago.

Many people, though, find the big birds with the four-foot wingspan easy to hate.

After the Ford government announced on July 31 that it would allow a fall hunting season for cormorants from Sept. 15 to Dec. 31, (with a limit of 15 of the inedible birds per hunter per day) in order to deal with concerns from “property owners, hunters and anglers, and commercial fishers,” online comments brimmed with vituperation against the birds.

They were condemned for their propensity to kill the trees in which they nest, and their ability to deplete fish stocks in the waters where they feed. One writer called them “filthy nature destroyers”; another called them “disgusting.”

Responding to an article in the Star about the province greenlighting the cormorant hunt, one man wrote a letter to the editor calling the cormorant “ugly” twice, suggesting perhaps “the good Lord had made it from leftovers.” But you can’t decide to kill a species of animal just because you think it’s unattractive or find it disgusting. Wildlife management solutions must be based on science.

The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry estimates there are more than143,000 breeding cormorants in the province and that their numbers in the Great Lakes have “stabilized or declined slightly” since 2000. Ontario Nature says this represents an environmental success story because the birds have “rebounded from historic lows in the 1970s, after suffering steep declines because of exposure to environmental contaminants.”

In the Star’s Aug. 3 article announcing the hunt, York University environmental scientist Gail Fraser, who has studied cormorants, told reporter Gilbert Ngabo that the hunt wasn’t necessary, that it wasn’t science-based and that it was a “political manoeuvre” to appeal to the government’s base.

Fraser reiterated her position in an open letter sent to John Yakabuski, the natural resources minister, last month. According to a CBC report, the letter was signed by 51 experts in ecology, fisheries science and natural resource management from Canada and the U.S.

The experts said the hunt was not based on science. Instead of the hunt, they urged the adoption of “targeted, localized management approaches.” They called on the province to provide a “sciencebased, detailed and peer-reviewed approach” to deal with the cormorant issue.

This winter, while the cormorants are sojourning down south, the Ontario government should review its decision to allow hunting of the birds and deliver a management strategy based on science and the best wildlife management practices available.

Let’s ensure we’ll always have the return of the double-crested cormorant to look forward to each spring.