Seal cull news

[Sangstercraft]

East Coast seal cull:

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/10/23/seal-cull-canada_n_2006442.html?ir=Canada&ref=topbar

It's surprising that the biologists don't see a clear connection between seals and cod, but hey, there's a lot I don't know about that cycle. I've also read about how seals here eat hake (or haddock?), which is a predator of juvenile salmon, so even that cycle isn't clear. I would like to pop all the seals hanging around off river mouths though

 

[Duffer]

Go down to the Bridge at night on the Puntledge and watch the Seals Gorge there yaps on Fry on this Coast the proof is there. Just TOO many Seal Huggers around to let a Cull happen. This battle has taken a Back Seat. Meanwhile the Seal Population definately keeps rising.

 

[GDW]

Not sure what the big deal is fish farms can kill nusance seals and sea lions why can't hatchery staff and river keepers do the same?

Maybe that is a use for fish farms, get their staff to help cull some seals.

 

[Andrew P]

Unless people are proposing that we go back to harvesting these guys, a little culling won't do **** to reduce the numbers. And the numbers are stable in BC. They skyrocketed since protection was put in place in the 70's but has since leveled off to a stable level(which is a balance of the food available). killing some seals just opens up a space in the food web for more seal pups to survive and fill the spot; it won't mean more fish for us.

Where I think the problem arises is because us human's have ****** with the balance to the point that there is not enough fish for all, but the answer is not to cull the seals, the answer is to cull the commercial fishing fleet. The problem on the east coast sure wasn't that there were too many seals that were out there just eating up all the fish....it was that there was mass overfishing by HUMANS. DFO needs reforming. Fish stocks need rebuilding. If this happens like we all hope it will, there will be many more seals than there are now, which is a sign of a healthy ecosystem.

What WE need in order to catch more salmon is more healthy streams, more hatchery programs and less commercial fishing, which is actually a net drain on the BC ecomony.

Note the MASS return of COHO to every single stream around here. That has nothing to do with seals and a lot to do with the fact that much of the Japanese fishing fleet in the North Pacific was wiped out with the tsunami; they lost well over 10,000 fishing vessels. And therefore they did not snap up as much of BC bound fish. The fact that there were lots of seals around did not make a dent on this massive return.

Anyways, if there are more fish for all...then the seals don't really matter.

Just my two cents.

not that you can trust DFO too much these days, but here is the latest stats for BC.

http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j...Cv9kETP_bT-od4S8Q&sig2=xQVuDzpZSDRESNRsI87qUw

 

[rendraW]

great post Andrew, I agree with most of what you said. The only thing is, if the Japanese fleet being "down" is the reason for the good coho returns, why weren't the chinook returns similarly spectacular? do the Japanese only fish for coho? Interesting and deserves more research, but I doubt we can say definitively why the coho this year was so good. Such a complex cycle with so many uncontrollable variables.

 

[Kildonan]

I met a fellow this summer in Bowser who told me about days where there was a bounty on seals around there. He would drive the boat as his dad would shoot them.

They got paid for the snouts they collected.

 

[beemer]

I met a fellow this summer in Bowser who told me about days where there was a bounty on seals around there. He would drive the boat as his dad would shoot them.

They got paid for the snouts they collected.

been there , did it. It was a waste of time then and its a waste of time now.

beemer

 

[reelfast]

on this side of the line, tribal members are allowed to harvest 6 seals/yr. when i ask them why they don't, they simple shrug and point out that no one has eaten seal meat for decades. most likely big macks have substituted.

interesting theory about the japenese fishing fleet but keep in mind the migratory patterns of NA fish. while there is some intermix in the berring sea, that does not last all that long with these fish hugging the coast lines. also consider the other statement regarding why no big bump in chinook. unless the japanese and other open ocean fishing vessels are within the 200 mile teritorial waters of the US, it is unlikely they are intercepting US or canadian fish. why the huge bump in coho?? i don't have a clue. the last stuff i read about overharvest in the open ocean pointed the finger directly at the trawl factory ships targetting hake. their 'incidental' catch of salmon was horific.