Ontario’s Double-crested Cormorant hunting season may be ineffective but that doesn’t mean there are no conflict issues

On the lack of scientific evidence for the Ontario cormorant cull and other cormorant management actions: a response to Dorr et al. (2022)

“…Conclusions in the absence of replicated data from multiple studies are not valid science: Rather, it is speculation and, more often than not, over-generalization. Unfortunately, the list of papers cited by Dorr et al (2022) in support of their premise provides little scientific evidence and consideration of alternative hypotheses that undermine the Fielder (2008) work, as described previously, for the Great Lakes region.…”

“…While we welcome the debate, it is clear to us (now including Ludwig, the senior author of this report) that such premises are simply not true; a more careful reading of our papers would have revealed a more dispassionate and scientific approach to the question and that we had very clearly focused almost entirely on the Great Lakes region vs. Double-crested Cormorants everywhere. Rather, the Dorr et al (2022) response reflects the authors' long careers in cormorant "management" and an apology for the record of the US government (and various state agencies) with respect to cormorant fisheries concerns. The apparent need by Dorr et al (2022) to defend cormorant management in light of the irrational Canadian province-wide hunt /cull by an ill-informed public is revealing.…”

“…Rather, the Dorr et al (2022) response reflects the authors' long careers in cormorant "management" and an apology for the record of the US government (and various state agencies) with respect to cormorant fisheries concerns. The apparent need by Dorr et al (2022) to defend cormorant management in light of the irrational Canadian province-wide hunt /cull by an ill-informed public is revealing. Readers will know that we clearly acknowledged that certain situations justify cormorant management and should be conducted by professionals (as in fact quoted by Dorr et al [2022] from Hobson's editorial).…”

“…The apparent need by Dorr et al (2022) to defend cormorant management in light of the irrational Canadian province-wide hunt /cull by an ill-informed public is revealing. Readers will know that we clearly acknowledged that certain situations justify cormorant management and should be conducted by professionals (as in fact quoted by Dorr et al [2022] from Hobson's editorial). Moreover, we never labeled cormorant management universally as "persecution."…”

“…The Dorr et al (2022) essay raises important issues but is afflicted by the same tunnel vision that has tainted many studies of fisheries and cormorants published by fisheries and wildlife biologists for decades. This included ignoring examples of any beneficial interactions of cormorants with game species, cherry-picking data sets to include only those data that suggest cormorants harm fisheries, creating models replete with unjustified or known false assumptions, the ignoring or outright misuse of published data, and a common tendency to assume the only important change in ecosystems where conflicts exist are changes in fish stocks (usually game fish) and cormorant numbers.…”