Ontario propose cormorants hunt in 2019

jimmyjazz said:
The Cormorant Recipe comes from a bygone era: Countryman's Cooking, by W.M.W Fowler circa 1965.

Having shot your cormorant, hold it well away from you as you carry it home; these birds are exceedingly verminous and the lice are said to be not entirely host-specific. Hang up by the feet with a piece of wire, soak in petrol and set on fire. This treatment both removes most of the feathers and kills the lice.

When the smoke has cleared away, take the cormorant down and cut off the beak. Send this to the local Conservancy Board who, if you are in the right area, will give you 3/6d or sometimes 5/- for it. Bury the carcase, preferably in a light sandy soil, and leave it there for a fortnight. This is said to improve the flavour by removing, in part at least, the taste of rotting fish.

Dig up and skin and draw the bird. Place in a strong salt and water solution and soak for 48 hours. Remove, dry, stuff with whole, unpeeled onions: the onion skins are supposed to bleach the meat to a small extent, so that it is very dark brown instead of being entirely black.

Simmer gently in seawater, to which two tablespoons of chloride of lime have been added, for six hours. This has a further tenderising effect. Take out of the water and allow to dry, meanwhile mixing up a stiff paste of methylated spirit and curry powder. Spread this mixture liberally over the breast of the bird.

Finally roast in a very hot oven for three hours. The result is unbelievable. Throw it away. Not even a starving vulture would eat it.
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Another way to cook them is to place the bird in a large pot of water with an axe head.

Boil it until the axe head is soft.

Then you can just about get your teeth in the Cormorant meat if you can stop the gag reflex.
 
This is high time. Several local flocks / colonies have started on our local lake, taking over 3 islands.
Shot size will be part of the regs, I am thinking #4 steel with a mod choke will work.

It is unfortunate that .22 quiets are unlikely to be legal... as that would be more efficient.
 
canadian hunter312 said:
The Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act currently prohibits anyone who kills game wildlife (including game birds), or who possesses game wildlife killed by hunting, from allowing that meat to spoil. Via this posting, the Ministry is also consulting on a proposal to amend the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act to add provisions so hunters could allow cormorant to spoil. This proposal would add provisions to the Act, so that persons who lawfully hunt (or possess) cormorants could be exempt from this requirement and would be subject to conditions that require the person to retrieve and dispose of the carcass. Should this proposal proceed, it may be accompanied by regulations to implement the exemption and requirements.


I like that part and am surprised to see it included. Maybe dog food is a good option?
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I do not recommend that any hunters leave the birds in the lake or river, unless (like loons), they have solid bones and sink. I will have to find this out next year. Let's not give the anti's a reason to complain. I will bring my "game" home, and toss it in the woods. Will not be wasted at all. All manner of bugs and scavengers will consume the remains, without any waste. If the scavengers allow the freely provided meat to spoil, that is on them...
 
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Buck_Up said:
I do not recommend that any hunters leave the birds in the lake or river, unless (like loons), they have solid bones and sink. I will have to find this out next year. Let's not give the anti's a reason to complain. I will bring my "game" home, and toss it in the woods. Will not be wasted at all. All manner of bugs and scavengers will consume the remains, without any waste. If the scavengers allow the freely provided meat to spoil, that is on them...
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As a commercial fisherman we would throw out our cull on certain points and shorelines.
Flocks of seagulls regularly consumed maybe a hundred pounds or more of suckers overnight.
Eagles and buzzards were also prevalent.
 
the spank said:
Ya they have little effect on fish stocks!! :rolleyes:
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No offense, but I think I'll listen to educated biologists who actually did studies before listening to what some guy on CGN has to say. You sort of cherry picked those pictures to make it seem worse as cormorants eat ALL species of fish and this varies throughout the season depending on which species is easier to catch.

There simply aren't enough cormorants around the Great Lakes to have a significant impact on game and bait fish populations. Take Lake Erie for example, the total allowable catch for perch and walleye have been increasing annually for the last few years and the 2018 quota was over 10,000,000 lbs for perch and over 7,000,000 walleye (that's 7 million fish, not pounds). What's that, 14 to 21 million pounds of walleye? And you misguided folks are concerned about a few birds eating some fish?



IF perch and walleye populations were in decline, do you really think fisheries managers would increase the quota? Killing cormorants is all about the destruction they cause on islands and shorelines, not how many fish they eat.
 
Londonshooter said:
Jimmyjazz, I laughed my ass off.
If anyone thinks they don't impact fish stocks then you don't know that sick feeling when you see 8 of them in a dead tree over the best pool of the best brook trout river that you know and paddled/portaged several days to get to. Kill as many of this invasive species that you legally can.
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They are starting to encroach (have been for a few years) into Algonquin, where brook trout fishing is fantastic. They also push out local loons as they can dive deeper and consume more fish.

W.
 
I have no use for those b@#$&ds. I watched them string a picket line across the mouth of a bay of spawning perch, the rest went in and wiped out the school. Over 200 plus in that one flock. There are now no rock bass in a mile stip of shoreline and very few smaller bass
 
canadian hunter312 said:
No offense, but I think I'll listen to educated biologists who actually did studies before listening to what some guy on CGN has to say. You sort of cherry picked those pictures to make it seem worse as cormorants eat ALL species of fish and this varies throughout the season depending on which species is easier to catch.

There simply aren't enough cormorants around the Great Lakes to have a significant impact on game and bait fish populations. Take Lake Erie for example, the total allowable catch for perch and walleye have been increasing annually for the last few years and the 2018 quota was over 10,000,000 lbs for perch and over 7,000,000 walleye (that's 7 million fish, not pounds). What's that, 14 to 21 million pounds of walleye? And you misguided folks are concerned about a few birds eating some fish?



IF perch and walleye populations were in decline, do you really think fisheries managers would increase the quota? Killing cormorants is all about the destruction they cause on islands and shorelines, not how many fish they eat.
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Just wondering does that mean you will listen to your biologist friends and not support the hunt and think we should leave these birds alone because they don't do impact on commercial and recreational fishing?
 
canadian hunter312 said:
No offense, but I think I'll listen to educated biologists who actually did studies before listening to what some guy on CGN has to say. You sort of cherry picked those pictures to make it seem worse as cormorants eat ALL species of fish and this varies throughout the season depending on which species is easier to catch.

There simply aren't enough cormorants around the Great Lakes to have a significant impact on game and bait fish populations. Take Lake Erie for example, the total allowable catch for perch and walleye have been increasing annually for the last few years and the 2018 quota was over 10,000,000 lbs for perch and over 7,000,000 walleye (that's 7 million fish, not pounds). What's that, 14 to 21 million pounds of walleye? And you misguided folks are concerned about a few birds eating some fish?



IF perch and walleye populations were in decline, do you really think fisheries managers would increase the quota? Killing cormorants is all about the destruction they cause on islands and shorelines, not how many fish they eat.
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Lake Erie is not a great comparison to all the small inland lakes they have been decimating over the years. Not to mention all the plant life and environment for all kinds of other animals on all the islands they have ravaged.
Believe what you want, but these things have come too far and need to be controlled.
 
Spcamno said:
Just wondering does that mean you will listen to your biologist friends and not support the hunt and think we should leave these birds alone because they don't do impact on commercial and recreational fishing?
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I mainly fish Lakes Ontario and Erie and these birds have no impact. I suppose a large flock could have a significant impact on small lakes.

FishHog said:
Lake Erie is not a great comparison to all the small inland lakes they have been decimating over the years. Not to mention all the plant life and environment for all kinds of other animals on all the islands they have ravaged.
Believe what you want, but these things have come too far and need to be controlled.
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I'm not questioning the need for them to be controlled and I will have a great time using these birds as the best possible target practice a wing shooter could ask for. Real birds under real conditions with a 50 bird limit to really hone in your shooting skills each outing. I'm just wondering how long it'll be before they lower the limit as they're population should drop quickly if they let us shoot them.



Would guys who're into falconry use their birds for cormorants?
 
Michigan just re-instituted their hunt, so we might have a chance with both sides of the Great Lakes participating. There will be whining; but an invasive species is an invasive species.
 
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