Enough is enough, the time to act on cormorants is now
By Mike Reader, O.F.A.H. Executive Director

Forgive me if I vent just a little here, but I think it's about time. And, since it's about the topic of double-crested cormorants, I'm sure many of you will agree.

Last fall, while at a meeting on the Toronto waterfront, I was reminded of these unwelcome marauders once again.

From where we sat, Lake Ontario was in full view, providing us with a large reminder of the great outdoors. While I watched the boats passing by, a string of what must have been a thousand cormorants landed within fifty yards of my location and began feeding.

It was a subtle reminder and ominous warning of things to come.

Our position on these birds has always been clear. We believe that, though they have a place in our ecosystems, the burgeoning population levels that they have now attained are dangerous and a great threat to the fisheries of this province. Therefore they must be controlled.

Approximately 450,000 of these birds live in the Great Lakes Basin alone and anyone in rural areas know that they are making inroads into smaller lakes too. It's no secret that they are a menace to fish populations, decimating the forage fish base and even taking more valuable sport and commercial fish whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Their colonies are covered in a chalky refuse and any flora that once eked out an existence on these fragile sites is long gone.

They can not help but adversely impact on water quality and out compete other less aggressive birds like Black-crowned Night Herons for roosting sites. In a word, they are out of control. To put it bluntly, we are not happy with the Ministry of Natural Resource's approach to the problem. The issue has been studied ad nauseum in this and other jurisdictions and the conclusions are the same: with these population densities, cormorants decimate fisheries and wreak havoc on aquatic environments.

Any time huge colonies of birds gather, the threat of avian disease outbreak multiplies. It's time to use the considerable body of science available through the Ministry of Natural Resources and other sources in the scientific community and get on with it.

The time to act is now. Oiling a few eggs and prolonging studies is not going to alleviate the incredible pressure cormorants place on our fisheries. These birds are long-lived and prolific. Removing their protected status will help, but it certainly won't remedy the problem.

Stringent control measures and long-term strategies based upon the science that is available to us is needed if we are to protect our fisheries.

The more time we spend beating around the bush, the greater the risk to our fish stocks and the more difficult the problem will be to deal with. The number of recreational anglers in Ontario is down, and because of this, so too is the amount of money flowing into the Special Purpose Account.

The M.N.R. needs to recognize that if you can't catch fish, you won't buy a license. It’s time to protect the resource before it’s too late.