AR-News: (CA) Cormorants to be shot at Presqu'ile Park (wasLars Rudstem tel. #)

[Barry Kent MacKay]

[Sorry...I left an old heading in this message, just posted.  I HAVE
Rudstam's telephone number and will phone him, but for the record, his work
involves a very different situation than at Presqu'ile.  He works on Oneida
Lake, which I think is about five miles wide and 20 long, whereas Lake
Ontario, where Presqu'ile is, is about 22 miles wide and hundreds of miles
long.  Also, the Oneida situation is more about migrant cormorants and fish,
whereas we're being told that at Presqu'ile it is nesting cormorants and
vegetation (the trees are super-mature and will soon die at any rate).


I don’t have the date, but certainly this week’s issue.  

The Independent is a community newspaper published in Brighton, Ontario
(which is next door to Presqu’ile Provincial Park).

- BKM]

Cormorants to be shot at Presqu’ile park
by JOHN DUNFORD
The Independent
       For cormorants, who have had their eggs oiled and new hatchlings
drastically reduced, it’s just more bad news. But for anglers and hunters -
especially commercial fish haulers - it’s all good news.
        
The shooting of thousands of double-crested cormorants at Presqu’ile
Provincial Park has been approved by the Ministry of Natural Resources. But
while some town officials and angler associations are praising the move, two
groups are opposed to the plan to kill the skillful avian predator of the
Great Lakes aquatic system.
        
The Animal Protection Institute and Peaceful Parks Coalition say cormorants,
a predator at the top of the food chain, aren’t being given a fair shake,
and are hated only because they are viewed as competitors for sport fish
even though they play a vital ecological role.
      
 “ The rationale for this cull is not to protect rare vegetation,” said
AnnaMaria Valastro of the coalition. “Cormorants are by nature colonial
birds and have nested in large colonies since the beginning of time. The
impact their nesting colonies have on local vegetation is a natural process,
critical in the formation of soil and the regeneration of plans and trees.
      
 “ Shooting cormorants is to placate recreational anglers,” added Ms.
Valastro, pointing out the minister of natural resources made the
announcement at a conference of the Ontario Federation of Anglers and
Hunters.
    
   “ If you understand that all creatures play a key role in the balance of
nature, then you can’t pick and choose which predators receive protection
and which ones are shot dead,” said Kent MacKay of the institute.
       
 Thousands of cormorants arrive each summer to Ontario from the U.S. to nest
and rear their young before migrating south again for the winter - and
Presqu’ile park is home to thousands of them.
       
 But Ontario minister David Ramsay said the birds are destroying unique
vegetation and must be culled. That view is echoed by many in the community,
including Brighton CAO Don O’Neill, some councillors and the anglers and
hunters federation. “The island has been totally destroyed,” Mr. O’Neill
said. 
 
      “ This is an important first step in genuinely controlling birds that
threaten our fisheries, habitat and other birds species,” said executive
director Mike Reader. “The MNR finally seems to understand that egg oiling
is not the sole answer to controlling the threat posed by cormorants
destruction of fish species and land resources.”
        
The association insists the birds are threatening local fisheries and
ecosystems.
        
Dr. Lars Rudstam, associate professor at Cornell University in New York and
guest speaker at the conference, said cormorant predation is having a
negative impact on the population of walleye and yellow perch. A five-year
study he conducted concluded the birds are a major threat to fish stocks and
will continue to grow in numbers.

______________________________

Barry Kent MacKay
Canadian Office
Animal Protection Institute 
www.api4animals.org  


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