Cormorants are destroying Presqu'ile park

Don Newlands' letter about cormorant control at Presqu'ile Provincial Park asks the loaded question: why this lust to kill? The question should be: why does Newlands feel that we should not take action to protect a special and fragile ecosystem?

It can't be because double-crested cormorant are rare; with more than 450,000 concentrated in the Great Lakes basin alone, they are not even close to that. Could it be that Newlands is unaware of the cormorant population density in the park? Does he not know that there was one cormorant nest in the park in 1982 and more than 12,000 nests 20 years later? Does he not understand that this population increase has no end in sight? Is he unaware of the devastating effect that this concentration of these predacious birds has on a delicate ecosystem that includes shoreline vegetation, fish stocks and competing shorebirds - the very reasons that Presqu'ile was designated as a park in the first place?

Let's not talk about how they affect water quality, permanently destroy roosting sites or the enjoyment of beaches either. Let's not take any concrete action at all. No, instead let's just quote George Bernard Shaw about what awful creatures we humans are.

Newlands suggests that those cormorants are there as part of nature's balance. Most people understand that this is, in fact, nature out of balance. Cormorants have few natural predators. They are incredibly prolific and have been protected in both Ontario and the U.S. This along with improved water quality and restored fisheries (also a product of us horrible humans) have allowed cormorants to multiply to ecologically dangerous numbers - over 250 times historic levels. No sir, this is not about loading up to correct one of Nature's mistakes. It's about protecting a diversity of species in our parks and throughout the Great Lakes.

It's about saving rare tree-dwelling birds such as the Black Crown Night Heron and Great Egrets as well as delicate islands and shorelines. It's about preventing these birds from invading inland lakes that are not able to withstand the impact of dense cormorant populations.

We're not talking about eradication - simply control, research, and sound ecological decision-making. My guess is that even George Bernard Shaw would have been proud of how far we've come.

This letter to the editor appeared in the Brighton Independent on April 7, 2004