| OFAH FILE: 842 | For Immediate Release |
Cormorant control needed now
Healthy Great Lakes is the goal of cormorant plan
In the Great Lakes basin, St. Lawrence River, and several inland lakes in southern Ontario, April means the return of the double-crested cormorant, and the continuation of its ecological destruction and devastation. For years, cormorant overpopulation has been killing off huge tracts of precious Carolinian forest, decimating shorelines, threatening species at-risk, and raiding fisheries.
Cormorant populations have exploded over the past fifteen years, and are now spreading to inland lakes, such as Simcoe, Couchiching, Rice, and Algonquin Park’s Opeongo Lake, as well as the Muskoka Lakes, the Kawartha Lakes and others. The concern over cormorant overpopulation is two fold, and involves the bird’s consumption habits and habitat. The first issue is the cormorant’s voracious appetite for small and immature fish; with each bird consuming a minimum of a pound of fish daily, large populations can seriously degrade fisheries. The second ecological issue is the cormorant’s highly toxic guano (droppings), which kills nesting trees and underlying vegetation within three to ten years. The altered ecosystem also threatens other birds, reptiles and insects.
The Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters strongly supports conservation management plans that include a controlled cull in areas where the cormorant has become dangerously overabundant, such as in Parks Canada’s Point Pelee National Park, on Middle Island in Lake Erie. Parks Canada is proposing to reduce cormorant nests over the next four years to fewer than one thousand in order to help protect the island’s nine species listed under the federal Species at Risk Act, and thirty-three other species listed as provincially rare. The proposed conservation plan is backed by ten years of research and monitoring.
“The ecosystems of the Great Lakes and inland lakes of Ontario cannot continue to sustain the damage of a decade of cormorant overpopulation,” says Dr. Terry Quinney, O.F.A.H. Provincial Manager, Fish and Wildlife Services.
According to Parks Canada, unless there is an immediate and maintained decrease in cormorant populations on Middle Island, there will be an almost complete loss of ecological integrity of the Carolinian ecosystem in less than a decade. Information about the proposed implementation of the Middle Island Conservation Plan is posted on the Canadian Environmental Assessment Registry at www.ceaa.gc.ca, reference # 37777.
Despite compelling science that supports a cull as the only effective means of reducing current cormorant numbers, animal rights activists continue to block any such action. They recently succeeded in forcing a temporary delay to the planned Point Pelee spring cull, and in 2004, convinced the provincial government to cut short a five-year program to reduce cormorant overpopulation at Presqu’ile Provincial Park. Worse, the province has done nothing to address the crisis since then, leaving the O.F.A.H. to question the Ministry of Natural Resources’ stated commitment to the conservation of biological diversity, and to the wise use of our natural resources.
“The O.F.A.H. remains concerned that, by not managing the cormorant population, the super abundance of this bird will continue to damage other species and ecosystems,” added Quinney.
With over 83,000 members and 655 member clubs, the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters is the leading fishing, hunting and conservation organization in Ontario, and the voice of anglers and hunters. For more information visit www.ofah.org.
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Contact
| Lezlie Goodwin Communications Coordinator 705 748-6324 ext 270 | Terry Quinney Provincial Manager, Fish and Wildlife Services 705 748-6324 ext 242 |
