0 Comments
This is a petition to help stop a double-crested cormorant cull in Ontario started by Cole Swanson.
chng.it/JGfYYZ8K2Q Here is a little excerpt from Cole, To Minister John Yakabuski, Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry Cc: Premiere Doug Ford ([email protected]), Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada ([email protected]), Ontario’s Regional Director General’s Office ([email protected]) August 6, 2020 Dear Minister Yakabuski; On July 31, 2020, the Government of Ontario announced a 90-day fall hunt of double-crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) where a hunter can take 15 birds per day. As concerned residents of Ontario, we oppose this hunt on the grounds that no scientific evidence was provided for its justification. The claims made in both the original proposal (November, 2018) and the announcement of the hunt (July, 2020) are that double-crested cormorants decimate commercial fish stocks, compromise trees and vegetation to a significant degree, pollute water systems, and impact other colonial bird nesting sites. To date, the Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) has provided no scientific research validating the accusations that double-crested cormorants have impacted the aforementioned environmental systems to a significant degree, or that the population control measures involved in this hunt will improve the health of the ecosystem. The MNRF has not provided any scientific data required to qualify the bag limits as sustainable to the overall cormorant population. There are an estimated 197,000 registered small game hunters and only 143,000 individual cormorants in Ontario; if 0.5% of hunters reached the daily limit for ten days, the Minister’s hunt would allow the numbers killed to exceed the estimated breeding population in Ontario. The results of this hunt could be disastrous for both the populations of cormorants in the province, but also for birds of similar appearance, like the common loon (Gavia immer), the red-throated loon (G. stellata), the pacific loon (G. pacifica), and rare cormorant species sighted in Ontario, including the great cormorant (P. carbo) and the neotropic cormorant (P. brasilianus). Furthermore, the Minister has presented no information as to what steps his enforcement officers will take to ensure that daily bag limits not exceeded and ensure the proper disposal of carcasses. To date, the Minister has not indicated how his staff will measure health of the species, as the federal government does for other migratory birds. Finally, the Minister has not indicated if his Ministry will report on the impacts of the hunt overall. Minister Yakabuski, we call on you and your government to provide a science-based, detailed and peer-reviewed report that analyses the announced fall cormorant hunt. At a minimum, the report must address the following: · Why are cormorants designated as “game” birds when they are not as demonstrated by the amendment to the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act which allows hunters to waste the birds? · Cormorant population (numbers of breeding birds and colonies) and harvest goals, including analyses on hunt levels of 15 birds per day, the incorporation of other ongoing management activities (e.g., cull on Middle Island Point Peele National Park) and an estimate of how the population will respond to the harvest to ensure a sustainable population. · Will the number of cormorants killed be collected and if so, how and when? · How will the incidental take of other species, like the common loon, be assessed? · How will the MNRF coordinate with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in managing the interior and migratory population of cormorants? · Why did your Ministry choose a provincial wide hunt instead of targeted localized management approaches, specifically with respect to fish populations believed to be impacted by cormorants and impacts to habitat? Cormorants are a species native to Ontario. A significant amount of financial resources was invested in creating a healthier environment which allowed them to recover; their abundance is a conservation success story. We demand that the MNRF uphold their commitment to environmental sustainability by engaging with scientific research in the planning and implementation of a double-crested cormorant hunt. Until the scientific rigour demanded herein is demonstrated, plans for a hunt must cease. Scientific data and support for this petition has been provided by Dr. Gail Fraser (Ecologist & Double-crested Cormorant Specialist, York University) and the Animal Alliance of Canada. This research focuses on Photogrammetry Sampling in which high resolution camera and lens such as Sony A7R Mark 4 and GoPro HERO 7 with solar kit, as well as GigaPan robotic systems are deployed in the field. For urban bridges, the GigaPan system will first take individual photographs by rows and columns which are then transferred to GigaPan Stitch and PTGui Pro softwares for stitching. The image produced will be a single panoramic photo of the monitored span of the bridge that allows you to further zoom in for monitoring. However, GoPro is deployed at Gabriola Island cliffs where the camera is mounted on the cliffs overlooking Double-crested Cormorants' nests. In the Salish Sea, there has been a shift in the nesting behavior of cormorants from cliffs and offshore islets (Chatwin et al. 2003) to man-made structures like bridges and hydro-electric towers (Butler 2015). These man-made structures are found within the greater city of Vancouver, a large urban centre of 2.5 million people. This proximity to the city may expose cormorants to anthropogenic stresses like commercial vessel transits, ferries (Aquabus), speedboats, and other small recreational boats (e.g., kayaks, dragonboats), and higher ambient noise levels from vehicle and train traffic as well as noise from Vancouver’s industrial port activities. On the other hand, these man-made structures may make breeding birds immune from terrestrial predators and less vulnerable to aerial predation by bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) and gulls and therefore less prone to nest abandonment (Hipfner et al. 2012).
Breeding pairs of cormorants are difficult to census due to their remotely located and vertically‑oriented colonies. Conventional monitoring surveys of cormorants have been conducted using in-person observation using boat-based methods and binoculars. Studies on Triangle Island have been conducted in-person by using a viewing blind situated above the nests and cormorant colonies so that the adult cormorants were surveyed when they stood up (Hipfner and Greenwood 2009). However up to 2015, little was known about the timing and success of pelagic cormorant breeding colony sites along BC coasts (Hipfner and Greenwood 2009), including those of urban structures (Hipfner 2015, Butler 2015). The traditional census method for urban bridge occupancy involves looking up at near right-angles from a moving boat making it difficult to observe all nesting birds. Nonetheless, census numbers at Vancouver’s Second Narrows Bridge (i.e. Vancouver’s Ironworkers Memorial Bridge) estimated a minimum of 200 nesting pairs of pelagic cormorants (Hipfner 2015) and 93 nesting pairs of double-crested cormorants (Butler 2015). Although nesting numbers beneath Granville Street Bridge are unknown, it is well understood that this bridge is an important breeding site for cormorants (Butler 2015). |
Archives |