Hunt idea was scrapped due to potential of scientific scrutiny, experiences elsewhere
Barb Sweet | Posted: a day ago | Updated: 23 hours ago | 9 Min Read
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ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — The double-crested cormorant has been causing mass dissension when it comes to how to handle the increasing population of the bird.
A response to an access to information request to the provincial Department of Fisheries, Forestry and Agriculture revealed the controversy that hunts — or whispers of a hunt — have caused across the country.
Newfoundland and Labrador announced a new permit program to kill double-crested cormorants on June 15. Wildlife regulations allow for the killing of cormorants under a permit when they are deemed to be a nuisance.
Before it announced the cormorant population management measures, however, the province consulted other Canadian jurisdictions in 2021 with a questionnaire as it was then considering a cormorant hunting season.
Eventually, the department distanced itself from using the terms ‘hunt’ and ‘cull’, preferring to go with permit and “shoot.”
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The way the birds are treated in law is an oddity, one official noted in an email — they fall under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act between Canada and the U.S. but are provincially-managed.
P.E.I tried a hunt in the 1990s, and apparently it was disastrous, officials in that province told N.L.
“P.E.I. had an open season for double-crested cormorants in the early ‘90s. Because they look very similar, many great cormorants were mistakenly shot, which contributed to a sharp decline in the great cormorant abundance,” P.E.I.’s response to the questionnaire from N.L. noted.
Both those species reside in this province.
P.E.I.’s hunt also affected tourism, as the hunters didn’t pick up the dead birds, which apparently aren’t really edible.
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N.L. cormorant permit program targeted for ‘specific problem areas’, not ‘a full-scale hunt’
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Benefit to inland fish?
MUN biology professor Ian Jones cautioned the department in August 2021, saying the cormorants tend to prey on forage fish and low-value species such as perch and suckers rather than there being any evidence they have an effect on sport fish populations elsewhere in North America.
In an email, he said the expanding population might actually be beneficial to the quality of inland fishing by resulting in larger trout.
The department noted in a backgrounder that might be achieved as it would thin out weaker and smaller fish, but more scientific study was needed.
“There are lots of fish-eating bird species — one wonders why the double-crested cormorant is being singled out,” Jones wrote, while commenting on the situation in Ontario being politically-driven.
On Wednesday, July 19, Jones told The Telegram via email that the province’s approach is “very much a solution looking for a problem (that based on scientific criteria, doesn’t exist).”
Jones insists there is no evidence that the cormorants are negatively affecting native fish populations, as the issue has been widely investigated by scientists, and said government is wrong in inferring their guano (accumulated excrement) is especially harmful and causes water polution.
He said some assertions have been falsely spread widely through social media in Labrador, including that cormorants depredate eggs and nestlings and prey on other birds..
Another is “the ‘Waterford River cormorant panic’ — apparently manufactured and disseminated by the news media,” Jones said.
“A few cormorants have been seen roosting at Bowring Park, delighting birdwatchers (not at all considered to be problematic by these folks). Introduced invasive brown trout in the Waterford River have a lot of predators, including otters, mink, people, belted kingfishers, merganser ducks, etc. — it is not clear why double-crested cormorants are being singled out and they don’t have a nesting colony anywhere nearby. This item is pure fantasy,” Jones said.
He said handing out permits to private citizens to fire off guns outside hunting season is likely to be “extremely problematic” for public safety, peace and security, and will “undermine efforts to rigorously regulate waterfowl hunting and manage wildlife populations.
“A fact-free meme has been spreading widely and has apparently infected the Wildlife Division — there is no rational support for any kind of cormorant hunt, cull or harvest, and the recent announcement of a hunt/cull/harvest is extremely discouraging for scientists because we don’t feel we are being listened to, or that facts matter,” he added.
Learning lessons
When Ontario proposed its cormorant hunting season, the federal Environment and Climate Change Canada wrote to express its worries.
“We recognize that double-crested cormorants are managed under provincial jurisdiction; however, it is important to be aware that most cormorants nest in mixed colonies that contain other colonial-nesting birds, including: herring and ring-billed gulls, Caspian and common terns, great egrets, great blue herons and black-crowned night herons, among others,” wrote assistant deputy minister of the Canadian Wildlife Service Sue Milburn-Hopwood.
N.L. perhaps took heed of the lesson of Ontario’s haste to hunt.
On July 31, 2020, Ontario announced a fall hunt on the cormorants. A group of ecologists, fisheries scientists and natural resource managers expressed outrage over the lack of scientific examination associated with the announcement.
“Public discussion of cormorants and cormorant management has been contentious,” Ontario officials noted in its questionnaire response.
Most Canadian jurisdictions do not permit an open hunt, instead going the localized permit route as N.L. has done, if at all. New Brunswick has a seasonal hunt.
In a decision/direction note on a proposed hunt for 2021 that didn’t come to be, the N.L. Fisheries, Forestry and Agriculture department warned that opening a hunting season on the double-crested cormorants should be a last resort, as it would likely lead to public scrutiny by the scientific community.
“To date, there is no documented impacts that cormorants negatively effect local fish populations or undermine recreational, commercial or aquaculture gains,” a departmental analysis in the decision/direction note said.
How the permits work
In June, Fisheries, Forestry and Agriculture said the department received complaints from the public about large numbers of the birds in specific areas, such as around water supplies or near important salmon rivers.
Wildlife regulations allow for the killing of cormorants under a permit when they are deemed to be a nuisance.
The permit is designed to be used only in those situations, not as a general permit for someone who wants to hunt cormorants. People can apply for the permit, and the wildlife division will evaluate the problem outlined in the application. If the department thinks killing the birds will help the situation, a permit will be issued.
Cormorant populations were reduced by pesticides such as DDT but have rebounded since those pesticides were banned in the 1970s.
The birds could be expanding beyond their historical range due to climate change and anthropogenic habitat alteration, the department’s analysis said.
— With files from Juanita Mercer
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