Raise the Hammer

I read all your comments, some with great sadness, some with delight.

I find both Paul's and AnnaMaria's actions to be highly authentic and credible, given the MNR and Ministry of the Environment (Parks Canada)'s penchant for declaring wildlife areas a park or protected area in need of revitalization, and then killing the most abundant animals within them.

They do this by performing a "count" which is often impossible to do accurately, so it's really just their estimate, and then deciding that, with no scientific justification, that species is "hyperabundant". It is all a ploy to support hunters and fishers, to continue the sick practice of paying for the Ministry's staff with licence (killing)fees. Instead of building ecologically sound strategies to draw people to our parks, and create funding from ecological tours, etc., our provincial and federal governments' agencies continue to support the wishes of the vocal 8% of the population who wish to consume our native heritage for the joy of legalized killing. I find it barbarian!!!!

Look over, if you wish, the MNR plans to cull the deer and cormorants at Presqu'Ile, the Fisheries and Oceans/Parks Canada investigation into culling the seals of lonely Sable Island where they have lived in balance and harmony for hundreds of years, and the annual slaughter of parent cormorants on their nests at "bird sanctuary Point Pelee National Park", which I boycott as a result. There seems to be no animal who is safe in our parks or native areas.

Cormorants have been maligned, despite their presence which presents evidence of a vibrant ecology, their beauty, especially against the blue sky, their wonderful parenting efforts, and their wonderful consumption of our own introduced invasive fish species. They have at least twice become almost extinct from our wonderful love of killing.

Toronto has not done a cull, primarily because the citizenry rose up against it en masse. I was at those "presentations" before public input, and I saw the bias so clearly I could have thrown up.

To those who complained about the odour, I say, too bad if their excrement is highly fertile and smelly. It will, in a very short ecological time, create a highly lush natural environment if we leave it alone. It can also be removed and sold for the wonderful fertilizer it is at a profit to our conservation authorities if we wish to use it after the birds leave.

The same cannot be said for the toxic smells I get to live with which drift up from the lakeshore from industry. I have asthma, and I suspect it is because of the air pollution which has resulted from human industry and large vehicles which continue to be hyperabundant on our roadways. And one must ask the question, who is more hyperabundant in this area, wildlife or humanity? Who destroys natural habitat at an exponential rate and permanent level, wildlife or humanity? And as for windsurfing or boating, who were there first, wildlife or people? If you wish to enjoy nature, then enjoy it, all of it! It's an ecology, comprised of all the species living in balance and harmony. Cormorants are beautiful in flight, peaceful to watch, and loving to their families. They are a great model for humanity.

Since we seem so concerned about fish and fish habitat, I can't help wondering how many fish are being killed by motor boats, or the gas leakages at their docks. Does anyone want to declare boats a fish hazard, then, and destroy the docks to create additional spawning grounds?

If you want natural settings, then there will always be many things you will like, and others you won't: cold winds blowing the wrong way, human garbage floating on the water, sudden storms, unexpected rocks. You live with those things because they are a part of the beauty and surprise of nature, as are the cormorants, and you live with them knowing that human destruction has, by far, the most severe impact you must contend with. Why don't you complain about that? If these things don't appeal to you, you might want to explore some of the multitude of gyms in the area. They are, in my view, hyperabundant.

People who like the nightlife might find sunrises hyperabundant at times. In nature, there is no such thing: it is always dynamic and in process of balancing itself. We can't even begin to match its skills or gifts to us. Nature is priceless, not measureable in monetary terms. And to continue to disrupt it, as we continue to do, places our own continuance in jeopardy. When we interfere with nature, one species at a time, we interfere with balances, and gene pools, and our own capacity to feel compassion to those less fortunate. What do those things do to our natural heritage? What do they do to us?

I would much prefer to watch and enjoy the serenity of the cormorants nesting and flying happily above our waterways, eating our invasive fish species (since we have destroyed the lakes' ecologies on our own), and remaining a wonderful, black-on-blue part of our lake ecologies, as they were meant to be, and as they have been for hundreds of years. They are our native Canadian migratory birds, and deserve to have our respect, care, and protection.

The secrecy which Paul alluded to in trying to obtain information on this article seems to be becoming the norm with government at all levels with regard to the environment and its protection, and is an appalling abuse of democracy. It disenfranchises citizens from making informed decisions. If I wasn't working full-time, and very hard, I would run for office to stop this.

I appreciated the comment on use of the library resources as a tool, hoping that it was presented for our information, but believe that any studies which should be being considered in this decision should be current, accurate and science, not projection-based.

I respectfully remind everyone that cormorants are our native bird species, part of the Canadian natural heritage and ecology. Displacing them or worse is cruel and unnecessary, and will damage, not only them, but the entire ecology in which they function and the adjacent ecologies around them. In nature, all life is interconnected and interdependent. We have the bad habit, as a species, of forgetting that.

Cormorants only, as we assume we do, need a place to raise their families. They congregate naturally into large groups for security reasons, and support the maintenance of some egret species, while at the same time, eating our invasive fish species in needed numbers. They are anything but hyperabundant anywhere. They, and their little island, need to be left alone.

Destroying an island where they and other species nest will be highly destructive to all the species in the adjacent ecological areas, and will demonstrate, in my opinion, that the humanity who supported the destruction has never grown up past the ecocentric, self-centred stage of species development of our young children. It is natural in young children to see things only from the viewpoint of one's own needs; it is not natural, healthy or ethical in adults, and if we continue to act as if we are the only species on the planet that deserves to live here, we won't be around much longer. All life lives, or doesn't, together.

The island, and the cormorants, should be left alone!!!