california
Well-Known Member
I assume you are aware of the exploding population of Seals and Sea Lions on the South Vancouver Island, including in river estuaries. There is no end of scientific evidence supporting this and most of us who fish regularly have had first hand experience of a Seal or Sea Lion snatching a salmon right off our fishing lines, not just once, but often. In some cases on some trips 3 or even 4 out of 4 salmon. You see the brown eyed thieves following your boat!
No one is talking about a random slaughter, just getting these predators back to the level of the past. Losing a salmon to a Seal or Sea Lion was not an issue in the past!!
I don't dispute the population has increased substantially, its well documented and it had to as they were indiscriminately killed for quite some time. During that time it wasn't unusual for fisherman to shoot at killer whales and the live capture program was very harmful to the populations as well as Killer whales were also seem as vermin and competition only a few decades ago. That's why whales and dolphins are included in the same protection measures seals are. Just to be clear populations ARE at past levels that persisted likely for thousands of years. The population levels that persisted for a short period of time in the 20th century due to human activity were an anomaly.
The transient (Biggs) killer whales unlike the SRKW have done very well, close to doubling in number to over 400 animals in the last 25 years as their preferred prey species have rebounded. While in the past they were rarely seen in the Salish sea, its now not uncommon. So if we begin killing off the seals and Sea lions, it will potentially put the Biggs killer whales in similar situation to the SRKW as far as prey goes. They will potentially begin dying too if their prey species are decimated as its the seal and Sea lion population increases that resulted in their population increase. I think the NGOs and environmental groupswill have a pretty powerful argument against removing protected status for a west coast seal kill when the kill has no economic viability, and will potentially harm a larger whale population than the SRKW, considering the attention the SRKW are currently getting. Just something to consider, killing off or manipulating one part of the ecosystem always has consequences on multiple other ones.