Can We Learn to Coexist With Cormorants?

A recent Cottage Life Mar/Apr ’25 article, “If cormorants aren’t actually bad for the ecosystem, can we bear to let them exist?“, highlights the complexities of human-wildlife conflict and asks readers to rethink our wildlife acceptance capacity. GBA President, Liz Phillips, was interviewed for the piece and emphasized the “need to learn to live with the natural behaviour of wildlife that can survive in our human-dominated environment.”

Double-crested cormorants, once vilified as an invasive species, are actually native to Ontario. Their population decline in the 1960s and ’70s was due to toxic chemicals like DDT, but they’ve made a remarkable recovery. Despite scientific evidence showing they don’t significantly impact native fish populations, a government-sanctioned hunt was introduced in 2020.

GBA has advocated cancelling the cormorant hunt due to concerns about public safety, environmental harm, and lack of scientific justification. The birds are not edible, and rotting carcasses threaten bald eagles, other wildlife, and water quality. Cormorants are valuable allies in maintaining the delicate ecological balance on the Bay. GBA will continue to advocate for evidence-based conservation and responsible stewardship for these misunderstood birds.

Read the full Cottage Life article here. You can also learn more about GBA’s position on the cormorant hunt here.