Get ready Cormorants ?

[captpierre]

Let’s hope this gets approved  

https://www.oodmag.com/category/news/

[mukluk]

For the sake of our beautiful shorelines and fish stocks; I hope this goes through.

[BillM]

My 12g is hopefully going to get quite the workout on GBay.

[David Chong]

That would be so awesome!!!!

[HTHM]

As someone on another forum pointed out, shotguns and fishing boats, in close proximity could cause some safety issues. That being said, BRING BACK THE PUNT GUN!

[BillM]

Anyone blasting over another boat shouldn't be out there with a gun in the first place.

[fishdawg]

Hopefully everyone takes the time to complete & submit their comments. Heres THE opportunity to make this happen! 

[DanD]

How convenient it is to dump this issue onto the hunters? It won't cost the ministry a dime and if this proposal is passed and doesn't lower the population of birds; they can say we gave the public a chance to make a difference. More politics then remedy!  Not sure what else can be done; but putting a bird that is worthless as table fair is idiotic.  By proposing this the ministry is acknowledging there's an issue with these birds. They need to put their big girl's panties on and get out there themselves fixing this problem.

Dan. 

Edited November 21, 2018 by DanD

[porkpie]

I agree Dan, but it's a start I suppose.  They are also proposing to amend the FWCA to allow cormorants to spoil so that will remove the table fare concern and put them squarely in the nuisance category.   They've also change the initial bag limit of 10 to 50 it seems.  Too little to late if you ask me.

[AKRISONER]

lol this law may get the old man the up and go to get his hunting license once again. Hes always dreamt of heading out to one of the millions of rocks that these greasy buggers congregate on and just peppering em with pellets. He thinks he could hit 6 birds with one shot lol. 

Honest question though, what the hell do you do with the damn carcasses. No one is gonna wanna eat those dirty fish birds.

[Sinker]

Time to start carving decoys!! I could have shot thousands of these by now. Wish they were legal to shoot years ago. I will certainly be spending some time practicing my wingshooting with these dirty birds. 

 

S. 

[OhioFisherman]

They allow dove hunting here, and I like them a lot more than cormorants!

 

[Garnet]

2 cases of shells 1 loaf of bread.

[cisco]

Dumb idea. Too little too late. All it will do is further lower the image of hunters as mean-spirited killers with no regard for life. The antis will eat this up and proudly show any and all piles of dead birds they can track down.

The answer isn't just shooting but rather the destruction of eggs/nest shooting their tree nests. OMNR and DFO should be doing this quietly. 

I recall when the issue of controlling deer in Federal parks came up and the gov't decided to not let hunters do it but used their own personnel. Guess they like shooting deer but not cormorant nests.

Fed and prov officers should have a plan as to where and when and how to attack specific roosts during nesting season. It's part of their job IMHO. 

Rather they would lazily sit by as hunters do the work and take the heat.

They should also develop means to use the carcasses perhaps as fertilizer. What do rendering plants have to say? Can they use carcasses for something? Has gov't even bothered to research any of this? Deer hides are collected........ and I know MNR doesn't like dealing with the stinky things. 

Gov't is playing hunters as fools on this one. On a problem gov't has been denying and hiding and is therefore partly responsible for.

Wild life officers are out there anyway and should know where and how best to deal with the roosts. 

  

 

 

Edited November 24, 2018 by cisco
additional info needed for clarification re shooting possibilities

[Garnet]

I agree with you 100%.

Pass me the shotgun they are messing with the wrong guys fishing.

[Dara]

They could make good Coyote bait

 

A win win situation

 

 

[misfish]

On 11/22/2018 at 8:42 AM, AKRISONER said:

Honest question though, what the hell do you do with the damn carcasses. No one is gonna wanna eat those dirty fish birds.

Like I said, if people will eat boots,they will eat these birds.

[dave524]

Shot and cooked a Merganser   ONCE?,    these would be worse.  I was 15 , mom wouldn't let me cook it in the house, had to do it outside, smart woman. 

[porkpie]

2 hours ago, dave524 said:

Shot and cooked a Merganser   ONCE?,    these would be worse.  I was 15 , mom wouldn't let me cook it in the house, had to do it outside, smart woman. 

Grandpa and his buddies let me shoot a couple mergs  when I first started hunting.  Then he made me clean them and cook them.  Then I got to eat.  The big commons where the worst... Well, lesson learned I guess!  I did run in to some guys on cooks bay a few times at least 15 years ago that shot all they could and said they loved em!  They where from the Rock and I guess they liked the strong flavour.

[cisco]

Oh and the same net-canon devices could easily be set up on the rocks the birds frequent. Used them on turkeys so why not cormies?  

Hunters/anglers/others could still serve as volunteers to help gov't officers do the work. Good way of screening the 'I wanna shoot sumfin!' weirdos out of the volunteer helpers would be to make them aware that before they get to 'shoot sumfin' they must dispatch a certain number of the trapped birds  humanely by hand. 

Hopefully some gov't types in positions of authority read this and can get some perspective on what to do. Heck right now many municipalities are quietly kerosening Canada Goose eggs.

 

[Rodbender]

49 minutes ago, cisco said:

Oh and the same net-canon devices could easily be set up on the rocks the birds frequent. Used them on turkeys so why not cormies?  

Hunters/anglers/others could still serve as volunteers to help gov't officers do the work. Good way of screening the 'I wanna shoot sumfin!' weirdos out of the volunteer helpers would be to make them aware that before they get to 'shoot sumfin' they must dispatch a certain number of the trapped birds  humanely by hand. 

Hopefully some gov't types in positions of authority read this and can get some perspective on what to do. Heck right now many municipalities are quietly kerosening Canada Goose eggs.

 

Best answer right there Birders are already against it cause of other birds nesting at the same time with the nets the other's can be released

 

 BTW I am not a Birder I'm a Photographer so I look on Birder sites to see where cool birds are

Edited November 23, 2018 by Rodbender

[Fisherman]

It's going to cost prospective hunters some serious cash,  no lead shot.  Ever try to follow one in a boat, damm things fly faster than my boat will go and they are very wary when you try and sneak up on them.  Maybe someone can come up with a way of genetically sterilizing them.

[misfish]

1 hour ago, porkpie said:

 They where from the Rock and I guess they liked the strong flavour.

Hey hey,they were talking about our wimmen.LOL

[porkpie]

Yikes LOL

[cisco]

16 hours ago, Fisherman said:

It's going to cost prospective hunters some serious cash,  no lead shot.  Ever try to follow one in a boat, damm things fly faster than my boat will go and they are very wary when you try and sneak up on them.  Maybe someone can come up with a way of genetically sterilizing them.

I recall in the 1980's there was serious concern that the cormies would disappear. Huge media uproar happened when some drowned in commercial fishing nets around Bay of Quinte. Well IMHO that pop'n crash may have been from the DDT/mirex/? that was found to be thinning eagle eggs. A resulting ban on the egg-thinning stuff may be why the cormies have exploded. Or perhaps this and the usual case of a pop'n crash due to disease that flows through it. 

But to try and genetically engineer a solution may be bad for other species if in a consumable format. (Eagles and such also eat same stuff). To capture and introduce a genetic modifier to birds would be a long-term solution since the treated birds would be unable to affect the breeding of other birds. I suppose a spray treatment of nests may be able to get into their system, but again, eagles, osprey, other species landing on the nests would also be affected.

The best way to 'treat' the nests is to have shotgun pellets go through. 

AND since the nests are being shot then no need for steel shot. Volunteers/wild-life officers can dig out the old #4 shot and use full chokes to easily destroy/perforate 'the nests'. Also from what I hear the cormies do not like being disturbed and so the adults leave before the roost is arrived at.

 They can return to twig-infused omelettes. 

The Feds just need to pass regs allowing such 'treatment' of nests.

Hey and this is just off the top of my head. Anyone in wild-life management paid by taxpayers should be able to fine-tune the idea. Maybe they already have a plan that they quietly want but are afraid to go forward with.

Biggest concern to me is that many wild-life management people are into the 'let's get nature back the way it was' mindset. They want nature to take its course and not control native species like the cormies. This is who is standing in the way of anything being done. These are the folks who are denying the cormie impact of fisheries. They are happy to lie about things to attain their end objective. Their mantra is "The  end justifies the means'. Politicians/Ministers need to know the truth about what is going on. They won't get it from their underlings.