Honourable David Ramsay
Minister of Natural Resources
6th Floor, Room 6630, Whitney Block
99 Wellesley Street West
Toronto, Ontario
M7A 1W3


Dear Minister:

Subject: Cormorant Overpopulation

Given M.N.R.'s mandate to ensure sustainability of resources and optimize benefits for the people of Ontario from these resources, will you please provide us with the annual fish production allocation to cormorants by the M.N.R. for each location/area where they are breeding (and for where they are anticipated to breed, given that the negative consequences of overpopulation include dispersal and invasion to new locations [e.g. sensitive inland lake ecosystems such as Algonquin Park]).

M.N.R. scientists have reported that fish consumption by cormorants in the North Channel of Georgian Bay is 99% of the inshore fish production, and 60% of Georgian Bay's inshore fish production. These consumption rates are not sustainable and have significantly contributed to the degradation of the fisheries resource in these locations. In fact, an M.N.R. scientist recently described the devastation by cormorants to the inshore fish community in the North Channel of Georgian Bay as a tsunami.

M.N.R. scientists have calculated that 1,000 kilograms of fish are required to supply just six successful cormorant nests. If five of my neighbors and I told the M.N.R. our families were going to consume a tonne of wild fish, the M.N.R. would accuse us of raping and pillaging the resource.

Also please tell us what management actions the M.N.R. is taking to restore these degraded systems and associated fisheries and habitats. Surely, cormorant numbers must be capped in these locations where overpopulation has compromised important values such as fisheries and habitat, so that these can be returned to levels where optimal benefits become possible again.

The cormorant plague has been spreading inland from the Great Lakes and now threatens sensitive coldwater fisheries and their ecosystems.

For example, the sensitive coldwater ecosystem of Opeongo Lake in Algonquin Park ("the jewel" of the Ontario provincial parks system) had 40 cormorant nests on an island colony there in 2004. That means they received an allocation of 6,660 kilograms of fish. What does the fish community of Opeongo Lake consist of? -- highly sensitive species such as speckled trout that can not sustain such a high level of predation. And, what then are the allocation of fish to anglers using Opeongo and the allocation to common loons nesting there?

Minister, we forewarned the M.N.R. of the dangers associated with cormorant overpopulation since the late 1990's. At that time, there were about 200 cormorant colonies, and over a quarter of a million breeding cormorants on Ontario's Great Lakes alone. The M.N.R. has been "studying" the crisis for at least five years in the face of increasing damage caused by the birds.

M.N.R.'s procrastination has resulted in the unfortunate situation where in Presqu'ile Provincial Park, 6,000 cormorants had to be culled last year, and another 5,000 this year. Culling at this scale could have been avoided if our advice had been accepted earlier by the M.N.R. Please do not let the travesty of Presqu'ile continue to be repeated across the province.

All available control and restoration techniques must be employed by M.N.R. managers, "the stewards of the resource" immediately; otherwise, the worst is yet to come (for the cormorants, for the resource, for the ecosystems, and for the people of Ontario).