Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada
Today’s Environmental Rant
TODAY’S ENVIRONMENTAL RANT
Should we decimate a native bird at a time of unprecedented planet-wide species loss? Retired Peterborough teacher, and naturalist, Drew Monkman thinks differently. This is his opinion, and that of naturalist Tim Dyson, on designating cormorants as a game birds. All decisions, they say, should be based on good science. Drew Monkman is a columnist for the Peterborough Examiner.
The coming slaughter of the Double-Crested Cormorant
(Opinion Dec 14, 2018 by DREW MONKMAN and TIM DYSON Special to The Examiner)
These Double-crested Cormorants photographed on Snake Island in the Bay of Quinte (photo by Terry Sprague) could easily be slaughtered if Queen Park’s proposed cormorant hunt goes ahead.
Doug Ford’s buzzsaw assault on Ontario’s environment never stops. It’s now clear that “open for business” really means “open season on the environment.” Since taking office, he has cancelled Ontario’s cap and trade program, sacked the environmental commissioner, and introduced Bill 66, which would allow municipalities to circumvent Greenbelt protections and even exempt developers from rules designed to protect wildlife.
Then, on Nov. 19, things turned even nastier. On that day, ERO 013-4124 was posted by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests (MNRF) Environmental Registry of Ontario on the Environmental Registry of OntarioEnvironmental Registry of Ontario. It is entitled: Proposal to establish a hunting season for double-crested cormorants in Ontario.
With so much other madness coming out of Queen’s Park, I was not immediately aware of this proposal. Tim Dyson, a friend and frequent contributor to this column, brought it to my attention. We have therefore decided to join forces this week and present our thoughts on this cruel, unscientific and vulgar plan. If passed in its present form, the legislation would designate double-crested cormorants as a game species, create a province-wide annual hunting season from March 15 until Dec. 31 and allow anyone holding a valid Ontario Outdoors Card and small game hunting license to kill up to 50 cormorants per day (1,500 per month or more than 14,000 per season). The only constraint on hunters is having to dispose of the carcasses. Unlike other game, the cormorant would not be killed for food.
What we have here is clearly NOT a “hunt” of any kind. Hunting involves some level of skill on the part of the hunter and requires patience, stealth and the ability to make a clean kill. We have no issue with ethical hunting. However, what we have before us is simply a slaughter of a species that has twice before been on the Endangered Species List and yet has rebounded from extremely low numbers to now breed in relative abundance across much of the province. DDT use dramatically decreased cormorant populations in the 1960s.
When DDT was banned and chemical pollution of the Great Lakes was reduced, the birds made a spectacular comeback. In fact, for many years cormorants were the poster species for the Great Lakes cleanup. The recent rise in cormorant numbers is therefore the result of a recovery from a previously precarious position. Although cormorant populations appear to have now plateaued, some sectors of the public have been led to believe that there are still too many.
The best way to think about this proposal is “slob hunting,” namely an activity in which people are content to kill for the sake of killing. In the case of cormorants, it will be child’s play for hunters to shoot the birds as they sit on their nests or fly in and out of the colony. Zero skill will be required to kill them from boats positioned only metres from nesting colonies. The young of the dead or gravely injured adults will slowly die of dehydration, hypothermia, and starvation. All of this will happen in the absence of scientific data to justify such rash action and likely without sufficient monitoring by the resource-strapped MNRF.
Small congregations of cormorants could be wiped out in just a few minutes, while larger colonies could be destroyed in a matter of days. Years of effort and thousands of dollars to help this species recover from near-extirpation will have been for nothing. Supporters of the proposed slaughter argue that the cormorant population will remain at a healthy level. We are not convinced. Given the wide-open nature of the government’s proposal, how many years will it be before the double-crested cormorant becomes a species at risk once again?
It is almost certain that this slaughter will also result in the disturbance and death of federally protected, non-target bird species such as terns, gulls, herons, and egrets. Many of these birds are ground-nesters and often breed alongside cormorants in nesting colonies. When hunters go to retrieve the carcasses, nests are likely to be trampled. The “approach and open fire” in multi-species nesting colonies alone would violate federal laws. It will also disturb the public by allowing hunters to discharge firearms throughout the spring, summer and fall season when lakes and natural areas are populated by cottagers and tourists. Imagine trying to explain what’s going on to your kids. Non-hunters who enjoy the outdoors already stay clear of many natural areas during currently designated hunting seasons. This will only add to people’s stress.
It is widely known that commercial fishermen and the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters (OFAH) are the driving forces behind this proposal. And, to be fair, there is more than one perspective within OFAH on what is being proposed. However, let’s look at some of the so-called facts presented on their website. First, we are told that cormorants reduce game fish populations. Through careful analysis of cormorant feces, regurgitates, prey remains and stomach contents, the Canadian Wildlife Service has repeatedly found that only two percent of a cormorant’s diet is made up of game fish. Has any concerned angler or commercial fishing company done the same study? In fact, it is widely acknowledged that the presence of cormorants indicates a healthy fishery. If such were not the case, the birds could not survive in their present numbers. We should also ask ourselves, “How much commercial fishing is done on the Kawartha Lakes?”
We are also led to believe that cormorants destroy ecosystems. Clearly, the very idea that a naturally occurring species can destroy an ecosystem is preposterous. Ecosystems are not something that humans can successfully manipulate and keep the same forever. That is called a controlled area. Ecosystems and all their component species, including cormorants, are in a constant state of change. With the possible exception of invasive species, the best way to help an ecosystem is to simply allow nature to unfold as it constantly does. Article is courtesy of Drew Monkman and the Peterborough Examiner. Photo is by Terry Sprague
Please send comments on our Environmental Rant to naturestuff.tours@gmail.com and they will be printed below:
Readers comment on Slaughter of Double-crested Cormorants:I have just read the Rant, and can hardly believe what I read. Killing for the sake of killing?? Totally outrageous and unbelievable. With so many species in danger of extinction, surely we should be trying to protect and encourage our wildlife. . – Daphne BaraczkaReaders comment on Wind Turbine Construction Destruction:I enjoyed reading your environmental rant on the wind turbines…..it is a joy I could have easily done without…such a shame the way big business, government agencies and departments abuse their powers and the law. Government MPPs forget how they got there and and who put them in a position of privilege with large salaries and scandalous pensions. Civil servants seem to answer to no one….just the almighty dollar. And the public is left to deal and live with the destruction with the only prospect of change the next election…..by which time it is too late to rectify the situation. – Barry Kant, BrightonReaders comment on the Belleville Farmers`Market issue:I’m puzzled by the rant. I buy at the Belleville market all the time and I have no trouble buying local produce. Clifford Foster and Sandy Vader are there from East Lake, the Kleinsteubers from West Lake, the Blacks from Huff’s Island, the Wilsons from Stirling (with honey). A black man comes from Picton with produce from Bloomfield. I suppose she’d call that reselling. I love his asparagus and I couldn’t care less than he might not grow it himself. I’m just glad he brings it to market. The Lloysts may bring food from Toronto but they also bring local produce, eg. beautiful beefsteak tomatoes, from the Channels in Wellington. I don’t care that the tomatoes are brought to market by the Lloysts and not the Channels. Wellington is a long way to go for a few tomatoes, although I buy from Channels when I’m out that way. There is one truck from Niagara that, for decades, has been coming to market with fall fruit, especially peaches, fruit that doesn’t grow here. I have no idea what the woman is ranting about. Regular market-goers appreciate having fruit from Niagara. That vendor is not in competition with local farmers. I was on the elevator in this building one day after I had been to market. A woman on the elevator opined that the market produce was not local. When I pinned her down, she admitted that she didn’t know what she was talking about. – Pauline Sprague, Belleville
Readers comment on Monarch Butterfly release:Maybe there is no harm in it but what real need is there to do it? Why not plant a butterfly garden instead? That way Monarchs could be observed in the way nature intended .not delivered in envelopes. Today we have learned that many things we once thought were safe are in fact dangerous. Better safe than sorry. – Margaret Haylock, Picton Although all the points made are valid and more detailed research into this practice is required, we can’t be too harsh or judgmental in saying for ‘Amusement’ It was a Love gesture for those who participated who had lost a loved one. Most who participated were relying in the ‘Planners of this event’. Be it misplaced judgment, I really don’t think it was for amusement or mistreatment of these beautiful endangered creatures. Be kind and bring forth a good discussion with respect to this event. We’re all so harsh with each other. – Michelle Francine Loyer, Wellington There are so many factors to consider and think about. Do these releases harm the environment? What is the evidence that those released butterflies carried disease? Does MNRF have the resources or even desire to enforce regulations pertaining to insects except in serious situations involving large numbers of insects that have some sort of endangered status or special status in Ontario (there is a list of butterflies – perhaps 14 species – given special status in our Ontario Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act). If these activities are legal, what is the problem? Legal problem; moral dilemma? What about all of those teachers and parents who rear monarchs in their homes – is that problematic? I suspect there are no easy answers on this. – Don Davis, Toronto When I first heard about the Monarch release I was very worried. Because I am one of the many people in North America and Mexico who have been working to help this species to continue and grow in population. The Hospital Foundation representative said, “little is offered in the way of scientific evidence to support these opinions” that this practice could be dangerous to the butterflies’ existence. She ignores, or does not understand, that it always takes time – perhaps years – to find the scientific proof about the effects of human activities. And its then always too late to reverse those effects. However, our files are full to bursting with the evidence of what we humans have done to the natural world to the extent that our planet is now imperiled. So playing around with these butterflies, as well as caged birds, imprisoned whales, and on and on, for human entertainment or solace is wrong in my opinion. A better way to honor dead relatives with the symbol of Monarch butterflies would be to plant milkweed and nectar plants in our gardens, and to write Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna Catherine.McKenna@parl.gc.ca asking her to give permanent protection to PEC South Shore as the International Network of Monarch butterfly Reserves it is. – Myrna Wood, Picton
Readers comment on Discarded Coffee Cups: Having read Ian’s rant I could not agree more. I find it utterly astounding the number of coffee cups, pop bottles and pop cans (not to mention the empty chip bags, grocery bags etc) that are regularly strewn along our roadsides, in our parks and conservation areas. It always amazes me that half way along a nature trail, deep into the woods I will find an empty bottle or can. I can never understand how, if a person were able to carry a full bottle or can deep into the woods, how they can not find the energy to carry an empty one out! Maddening really. I have been of the habit in the last couple of years of at least picking up the empty aluminum cans and tossing them in my city recycling box. I should have kept track but can say with some certainty that its probably now in the hundreds. – John Lowry, Belleville I’ve sent the rent on to my dad who has collected bags full of Tim Hortons coffee cups along the edge of his property in Port Hope, and plans to make a big deal presenting them at Tim Hortons with media present. I told him to take a little child along to make it that much more dramatic – he is a well known environmental agitator at 88, and I think the contrast of having both him and a young child lamenting the impact of these dreadful non-recyclable cups on the environment might make some good news. – Molly Mulloy, Mountain ViewReaders comment on a recent Environmental Rant re A Speech Every Canadian High School Principal Should Give: “Rarely do I disagree with you but having spent 31 years working in child welfare in Toronto I had a few concerns about this principal’s speech. In the first place he did not acknowledge that there are 2 official languages in Canada but possibly only one of them spoken in his region. This gives me some concerns about other possibly illiberal views. Would he be comfortable with youth with unusual sexual identification dressing like who they felt like et al. Having had a dyslexic child who had a couple of teachers who made him feel uncomfortable about himself I am not that trusting of the educational system. The most important thing is how he puts this into practice so that all young people feel equally safe and respected in his school.” – Sandra Goranson, Point Petre
“The recent demands for people to state ‘Canadian values’ is alarming. Many Canadians’ religious beliefs have oppressed women. And Aboriginals. I don’t want those values to be enforced by a school principal such as this speaker. The future will depend on real democracy, not the repressions of the past.”– Myrna Wood, Picton
Readers comment on a recent Environmental Rant re wind turbines: “Once we collectively understand that biodiversity is not only ‘nice’ but critical to our own survival as a species, perhaps we’ll find a way to live in harmony with our fellow species. I think we’re a ways off for that but quickly running out of time. Apparently, scientists monitoring global temperatures and arctic ice are saying that the first six months of 2016 are the warmest on record. Once the ice sheets melt and methane gas is released en masse in the arctic regions, we’re in big doodoo. Already in April when I was seeding into dry ground, I recognized a real shift. People are lamenting the drought we’re going through but it seems clear, at least to me, that this is of our own making. It is my hope that there is a mass awakening coming very soon and that we reassume our place within the natural order with humility and respect.” – Bea Heissler, Frankford
(send any comments to Terry Sprague, and I will post them in this space)