BC Sealing Poll
- Thread starter IronNoggin
- Start date
Filletandrelease
Well-Known Member
So much crap going on out there that I feel like hitting something
california
Well-Known Member
I'm a little surprised the poll is split pretty evenly. I would have thought The Greens would have mobilized their troops to vote on this. Lots of stupid comments on the facebook page by "holier than thou" Vegans. From a PR standpoint I think the balance society has made a critical mistake throwing out a number like 50% reduction in pinnipeds. When you have Dr. Trites (the "smarter white guy" referred to ) rebutting them it is a problem, and it is highly unlikely that volume of animals could be sold in any case. There just isn't much of a market and lots of supply.
The other side of the coin is its likely a moot point. The liberal government is unlikely to stand in the way of FN killing seals, they don't want any more court battles than they have to have, and they would ultimately probably lose if you look at precedent on other fisheries. The challenge will not be getting approval, it will be what to do with the animals they kill. East coast sealing groups have been trying to develop Asian markets for the meat with government support for years with no success. The basic problem is seal meat is oily and not that palatable. The stereotype that Asians will eat anything so they will eat seal meat isn't necessarily true.
The other side of the coin is its likely a moot point. The liberal government is unlikely to stand in the way of FN killing seals, they don't want any more court battles than they have to have, and they would ultimately probably lose if you look at precedent on other fisheries. The challenge will not be getting approval, it will be what to do with the animals they kill. East coast sealing groups have been trying to develop Asian markets for the meat with government support for years with no success. The basic problem is seal meat is oily and not that palatable. The stereotype that Asians will eat anything so they will eat seal meat isn't necessarily true.
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ILHG
Crew Member
Luckly they sink so who care about a market. It enhances the feed for crabs. This should not be about a market, nor should demand dictate the volume taken. It's a cull.
california
Well-Known Member
After they sink they will bloat and float, and wash up on the shore of places like wreck beach, Spanish banks or Ambleside. Watch how fast the mobilization against it ramps up if that's what it becomes. DFO will put a stop to it quickly if there is no utilization of them. And a cull will do little, the population will rebound within a few years, it will have to be an ongoing kill to have any permanent effect, hence the desire to have some sort of market for the animals.
dmurph
Well-Known Member
Was pretty disappointed that the guy from the Vancouver aquarium had the last say. Was surprised they didn’t touch stronger on the amount of damage the seals do to the salmon population and they effect this in turn may have on the orcas. The news article basically just made it seem that a certain gryeants to kill seals for the simple fact that they are strongly populated
wildmanyeah
Crew Member
Not necessarily it's possible that they kill enough that the Transit Whale population puts the seal population into a death spiral down. You would have to ask the societies marine biologist Matt Stabler tho for the harvest numbers the society has researched to prevent something like that from happening.
http://frafs.ca/sites/default/files...t Planning for Fraser Salmon_Jan30 2019_0.pdf
ILHG
Crew Member
Then we focus more effort on California sealions first. Them big bastards get so big, I doubt many of them get eaten.
wildmanyeah
Crew Member
And in river, thoes seals eat a lot of salmon but don’t contribute to whale diets
kingblazer84
Well-Known Member
Should allow free buck shot to anglers who have shotguns.. thats how you make a "cull" successful!
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Peahead
Well-Known Member
Yep, gets my blood boiling every time I hear that Aquarium "researcher" on Global TV. Dr. Lance Barrett-Lennard who is a Vancouver Aquarium marine mammal researcher, which btw who's "research" work is to drive donations and membership from the public. Global seems to have a like-on for him and the Marine Mammal Rescue Center which rehabilitates naturally dieing pinnipeds they have been located and returns them back to many areas along the coast. And how is that not interfering with natural selection ? Dr. Lance ( as I call him) spoke out on global against sport Sport fishing and said that it needs to be curtailed due to the need to leave Chinook to the SRKW. On the other hand a team of non-biased international researchers including Dr. Andrew Trites from UBC (not raising funds/donations from the public for an Aquarium) , all strongly disagrees with Lance and have said that the numbers of Chinook entering Juan de Fuca are high enough for SRKW and that SRKW are not starving. Trites even went on to state that the same team unanimously agreed that stopping sport fishing would do nothing to help SRKW with their situation. I just wish Global would stop with their love affair with this Lance guy. Now as far as Trites feeling on a harvest or cull on seals.....he's not for it but as far as I know he is on board with the idea of the possibility of doing a smaller controlled cull on problem pinnipeds that have learned to gorge on out-migrating Chinook and coho at river mouths. A very respected UBC retired scientist Carl Walters said in a recent video that he believes a study should be done to determine if it is necessary but believes a controlled cull would likely help Chinook survival. I would agree with forum member 'california' 's comment that a 50% cull (harvest) demanded by The Balanced Pinniped Society is just not good PR. I actually think it does harm to those many ( including SFI ) who are wanting a controlled harvest only for those "problem" pinnipeds.
Edit: I support a seal cull or "harvest" of some sort but I am not yet convinced that a request for a cull of 50% was a wise one for a few reasons. I tend to believe what Trites is saying as far as its possible detriment to Biggs Whales if you take out too many.
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dmurph
Well-Known Member
Yes exactly, there is definitely some sort of connection with global B.C. and the Vancouver aquarium. Seems like every other week global runs a story about some seal the aquarium and ubc have rescued.
IronNoggin
Well-Known Member
Just left meetings with Fishless Oceans & awaiting the boat across the moat. Will have a few things to add in the next day or two...
Cheers,
Matt
Cheers,
Matt
kingspring
Active Member
Agree, Global is shoveling the Bambi theme adnaseum.
Deewar25
Well-Known Member
I was wondering the population trend of transients - fascinating that there appears to be significant historic difference. Two DFO sponsored papers, two entirely different graphs!
cohochinook
Well-Known Member
As you're probably know dmurph, at the mouth of the Squamish last spring as the salmon smolts were migrating out, there were over a hundred sea lions and seals feeding on them. It's not the consumption of the adults salmon that has the impact but rather the smolts as they're migrating out of the river. The ngo's try and paint the opposite that we're just concerned a boat salmon getting taken off our lines. Hopefully this project moves forward and we get to see some kind of a reduction in the impact on our out smolt migration in our River mouths.
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