Hunting season for double-crested cormorants

Devastated by toxic chemicals only decades ago, Ontario’s population of double-crested cormorants has seen substantial recovery in recent years. The Government of Ontario has put forth a proposal to establish a hunting season for double-crested cormorants (ERO 013-4124) which would let 50 cormorants be killed per hunter every day, with those cormorants killed being permitted to spoil. Hunting would be allowed during breeding season and at breeding colonies, with no requirements for long-term monitoring and assessment of ecological impact. This proposal has the potential not only to greatly damage cormorant recovery but to significantly influence the breeding populations of many other species including herons, egrets, alewives and gobies.

To learn more:

Here are some ways you can raise your objections:

Special thanks to TFN member Zunaid Khan for letting us use his photograph for this post.

Toronto Field Naturalists wishes to acknowledge this Land through which we walk. For thousands of years, the Land has been shared by the Wendat, the Haudenosaunee, and the Anishinaabe. Toronto is situated on the Land within the Toronto Purchase, Treaty 13, the traditional and treaty Lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. This territory is also part of the Dish with One Spoon Wampum, a covenant agreement between Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Wendat peoples and allied nations to peaceably share the land and all its resources. Today, the Land is home to peoples of numerous nations. We are all grateful to have the opportunity to continue to care for and share the beauty of this Land.