MY APPEAL TO Salt Water FISHERMEN .

[seascene]

I do wonder at the absence of a FN seal cull given their spiritual attachment to salmon which is threatened more by seals at this time than by allotments.

 

[wildmanyeah]

I'm sure FN guys will get all excited about getting $30 per pelt like they do in NFLD. There they harvest only a fraction of the harp seal quota because there is such a small market. Pelts with bullet holes are worthless which is why they club them on ice floes, and they take a tiny proportion of the population of millions of animals. How will that work here, we don't get a lot of sea ice, and harbour seal pups can swim almost immediately. Sea lions pup in California, the population here is mainly male. Despite very little economic value Canada continues to receive negative publicity due to the NFLD hunt, but it isnt exactly a tourist hub so the impact likely isn't much. Start killing seals in supernatural BC and the impact on ecotourism could be significant. If FN liked eating seals they would and would be free to harvest them despite protection, but they don't. The ones in populated areas would be so full of mercury and other toxic substances the amount a person could safely eat would probably be minimal. Seals salmon and whales have coexisted for thousands of years with the exception of the last century. What has changed since then? Ecosytems are complex systems, and simple minded manipulation of one scapegoated species rarely has the desired effect. It was only after wolves were eradicated over much of north America was their importance to overall health of the ecosystem discovered. The simpleminded desire of humans to find something to kill to make up for our destruction of the ecosystem is not new obviously. With threads like this showing a profound ignorance of natural systems and boasting of random illegal killings of protected species, it shouldn't be a surprise that sport fisherman are having our asses handed to us on a platter on fish allocations and SRKW closures.

You make some great points. But I don’t I understand why we would manage seals at such a high level when everything else is so depressed. What your basically saying is we should throw our rods in the water and just hope everything else recoveres like seals.

My suggestion would be that we reduce the seal population and as the salmon and other fin fish populations recover we increased the seal population.

We take a brood ecosystem approach.

 

[pescador]

I already have several harp seal pelts and they are not clubbed babies.. they are LARGE pelts and really nice.
I would pay extra for the one with bullet hole.

My wife’s got a harp seal jacket she inherited (I wasn’t go to throw it away). She says it’s the warmest coat you could ever imagine. She inherited it from her grandmother who interestingly lived in Carmel California. Anyway, seal coats from the West Coast of Canada has a very nice fashion ring to it and I’m sure would be amazingly warm and water proof. Like Canada Goose, all the Europeans would be fighting to get their hands on one.

 

[ILHG]

I bought my wife a psi of seal skin boots 4 yrs ago. She loves them. So warm & water proof, yet light as heck. I even picked up a men's pair & use them ice fishing

I would love Sealion seat covers in my boat

 

[bottom feeder]

i" ve said it before shoot the seals and take them up to the arctic and feed the starving polar bears problem solved polar bears live on and not become extinct seal population goes down less salmon get eat

 

[barkerfam]

View attachment 37201 View attachment 37200 I bought my wife a psi of seal skin boots 4 yrs ago. She loves them. So warm & water proof, yet light as heck. I even picked up a men's pair & use them ice fishing

I would love Sealion seat covers in my boat

These are FABULOUS. Sign me up!!

 

[Stizzla]

If 1000 boaters went out one day in the summer and just started blowing lead as a protest would we all get arrested and fined?

Yep, pretty sure you get arrested for just going out on the water and just shooting guns at seals. And yep, that would definitely be publicity all right, but would it be GOOD publicity? I think this thread is great because somebody has come up with a potential solution that satisfies us anglers AND the public. Please give your head a shake.

 

[ILHG]

I will go on the record and commit to purchasing a few sealion pelts. However I want them to be from problem areas and estuary's.

Because I'm to far away from the source to try to put an order in I will need to go in on an order that is being arranged.

I think $100-150 a pelt would be a price that would make it worth while for our FN & also respect the time and effort involved. What I love about this idea is it supports FN directly & is the best way to do this.

Lastly,,,,man I would love a sealion skull..

 

[searun]

I wouldn't advocate anything other than supporting local FN to pursue their right to a traditional harvest. There are other non-lethal ways to control the seal population that could be explored too. We just have to realize the scope of the predation problem, and commit to doing something about bringing the population into balance or you can kiss Salmon and SRKW good bye over the long run.

 

[capt hook]

Are there any designers on here that can design and build a large underwater trap , that we can give to FN as a tool?

 

[Tommygun]

So what's the market value of such a thing? I'd imagine I could get one made in China for less no?

I don't believe the cost of the pelt is the point.

 

[Rain City]

I don't believe the cost of the pelt is the point.

Did you not see the winky face? Wink-wink nudge-nudge? No? **** it.

 

[california]

In 2017 the east coast seal quota was 400,000, The Harp seal population is estimated somewhere around 7 million, and fisherman took 66,000. The price is so low, and processors have backlogs of pelts from past years that the value of the fishery is not much more than $1million, and only a few hundred sealers even bother to participate any more. The EU has banned all seal products, Russia recently followed suit. Opening up a west cost version will make total economic sense (not). Plus pelts with bullet holes are worthless. To make a dent in west coast seal/sealion populations, you would probably need to kill 8-10% of the population every year for quite a few years, so maybe 35,000 animals. It would need to be ongoing, as the pinniped populations will rebound. The few people on this site wanting pelts with bullet holes will take up 20 of those 35,000. How about the other 34,980? And In all likely hood it will make no difference. The increase in smolt production from hatcheries has far outstripped the increase in smolts eaten by sea lions/seals, and survival of those fat stupid factory smolts that aren't eaten is miniscule. The most successful chinook river in the Salish sea is the Cowichan which has decreased hatchery production in favour of natural spawning and habitat restoration, and has significant seal populations in the estuary. Meanwhile WCVI, Northern BC and SEAK rivers with low seal pressure are seeing record low returns.

Obviously a viable commercial fishery for pelts is a pipe dream (completely ignoring the protected status) , so then the answer is make the FN start eating them. It was never a major part of their diet (unlike Inuit) and They stopped doing it a century ago, and you are going to try to force eating seal blubber on a population that already suffers from epidemic levels of heart disease and diabetes? Asia? East coast processors have unsuccessfully tried to export the meat to Asia or anywhere else despite government grants and subsidies. Almost no one is interested in eating it on commercial scale.

 

[Dave]

California, you are the voice of reason. A seal cull will never happen on the west coast and you give plenty of reasons why.

 

[cohochinook]

It would be good if we could get the aquarium to stop saving abandoned seal pups and releasing them. For years they were releasing them at Porteau Cove right next to the Tenderfoot hatchery net pens. The seals would break into the net and eat the smolts. They would also kill adult salmon they were Beach seining. I filed a complaint and was told they were going to stop it as a release location and then watched the news the next year as they released 75 more.

I think the approach should be is a seal cull is needed for for the survival the salmon population and Southern resident killer whales. Sure they can be sold or eaten but the main reason should be that the population needs to be taken down.

We need to bring this forward to the higher-ups in government or DFO representatives. Put heavy pressure on them to act. Maybe as a group with some of the knowledge base here we could put a proposal together?

 

[capt hook]

In 2017 the east coast seal quota was 400,000, The Harp seal population is estimated somewhere around 7 million, and fisherman took 66,000. The price is so low, and processors have backlogs of pelts from past years that the value of the fishery is not much more than $1million, and only a few hundred sealers even bother to participate any more. The EU has banned all seal products, Russia recently followed suit. Opening up a west cost version will make total economic sense (not). Plus pelts with bullet holes are worthless. To make a dent in west coast seal/sealion populations, you would probably need to kill 8-10% of the population every year for quite a few years, so maybe 35,000 animals. It would need to be ongoing, as the pinniped populations will rebound. The few people on this site wanting pelts with bullet holes will take up 20 of those 35,000. How about the other 34,980? And In all likely hood it will make no difference. The increase in smolt production from hatcheries has far outstripped the increase in smolts eaten by sea lions/seals, and survival of those fat stupid factory smolts that aren't eaten is miniscule. The most successful chinook river in the Salish sea is the Cowichan which has decreased hatchery production in favour of natural spawning and habitat restoration, and has significant seal populations in the estuary. Meanwhile WCVI, Northern BC and SEAK rivers with low seal pressure are seeing record low returns.

Obviously a viable commercial fishery for pelts is a pipe dream (completely ignoring the protected status) , so then the answer is make the FN start eating them. It was never a major part of their diet (unlike Inuit) and They stopped doing it a century ago, and you are going to try to force eating seal blubber on a population that already suffers from epidemic levels of heart disease and diabetes? Asia? East coast processors have unsuccessfully tried to export the meat to Asia or anywhere else despite government grants and subsidies. Almost no one is interested in eating it on commercial scale.

Your comparing Apples to Oranges.
We are the west coast , not Europe or???
totally different situation , and much much smaller .
If you have a wasp nest on your back patio , you won,t take it down because there is a shortage of Wasps in Russia?
Do you work in Ottawa?
sure sounds like it.

 

[seascene]

.... birth control in a baited food supply plus a cull on smolt migration streams would be a reasonable start ... just sayin'

 

[Dave]

I like the bait and birth control idea.. can you expand on it? ie. have seals been baited before, cost, effects on other wilflife?
What would a cull on smolt migration streams look like? shooters? trapping? who would do it, would the public accept it?

I live near such a "stream",the Vedder, and can't imagine people here embracing that.

 

[Floater]

i" ve said it before shoot the seals and take them up to the arctic and feed the starving polar bears problem solved polar bears live on and not become extinct seal population goes down less salmon get eat

The polar bears aren’t starving.

 

[california]

Your comparing Apples to Oranges.
We are the west coast , not Europe or???
totally different situation , and much much smaller .
If you have a wasp nest on your back patio , you won,t take it down because there is a shortage of Wasps in Russia?
Do you work in Ottawa?
sure sounds like it.

I'm not sure what you are talking about with wasps in Russia? That sounds more beuracracy speak than anything else on this thread, you work in Victoria? The point is there is almost no market for the seal products being produced already, and thinking there somehow is a market for west coast seal products when there is none for east coast seals makes no sense. There is no market reason for killing them by FN or anyone else. If they are killed it will be just to kill them, and the carcasses will go to waste and have to be disposed of somewhere, and no shipping them to the arctic isn't a good idea, who knows what west coast diseases or parasites they will spread to the bears natural food supply in the arctic, and screw up the whole ecosystem there - like we have here! Since they will have to be shot in the water, many carcasses will sink and wash up later as stinking messes on kits or ambleside beach. I'm sure the west side and West Van residents be happy and be quiet about the kills when that happens.