Out of control

Dear sirs,
After reading the July 5 edition of the Times, and the MNR report on cormorants, I was wondering how the MNr was going to get by with all the damage done our thousands of cormorants.
I once read in the paper where cormorants eat upwards of one pound of minnows a day. I don’t believe this, but at a quarter-pound a day, this would be over 1,000-pounds of minnows a day in Rainy Lake.
Also, they say their main diet is rough fish. Not so. Perch is number one in the commercial market.
Back in the 1940s-50s, i fished commercially on the east arm of Rainy Lake. Two American fisherman and myself used to break up cormorants nests and eggs, and shoot the old ones.
We had the cormorant problems under control. You could go to Rat River Bay and see walleye minnows and perch minnows by the millions. Now you can see no minnows of any kind.
The rock piles are covered with cormorant and pelican manure. Small islands have no live trees on them–nests and bird droppings have killed the trees.
If you believe the huge increase in cormorants and pelicans is good for our ecosystem, then you are naive enough to believe in Bill C-68, where licensing and registration of the law-abiding citizens’ firearms up here will deter crime in downtown Toronto.
Remember, 5,000 or 6,000 cormorants eat over 1,000-pounds of minnows a day. This does not leave very much feed for our predator fish.
Chinese have used cormorants for centuries for fishing. The birds prove they are efficient for catching fish to feed people and are not selective in their choice of fish.
When our next seasons of poor walleye fishing turns up, who will the MNR and public blame?
They can’t blame their favourite whipping boy–commercial fishermen–as there are none left (Will they then blame angling?). Or will they put blame where it belongs–on cormorants and pelicans?
Deer and geese are causing untold damage, even though they are hunted. Just think of the damage cormorants will do to our ecosystem with no control of their population.
Signed,
Allan Kielczewski