Should Seals be hunted?

[White Knight]

Should seals be hunted? I ask the question because it seems apparent to me that seals are no longer endangered--and they eat a lot of fish. In fact, I "always" see many of them each time I go diving. Besides the fact that they are cute, should they be protected if they have adaquet numbers? Maybe there should be a season to hunt them? Don't get me wrong, we can have no hunt seal zones combined with minimum lengths and aggregate catch limits.

 

[Underwater Ogre]

Thats one big ole can of worms you are opening.
Good luck,
O

 

[Hockeynut]

Why would you pick this forum?


Never mind, it's been moved.

 

[Teamcasa]

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

Moved to Marine life...

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[novicediver]

Let's see, besides the fact that this is probably a troll-ish question, what are your sources for them no longer being endangered? If you are going to open this can of worms, just be prepared and have an informed argument for your stance.

 

[Underwater Ogre]

They haven't ever been endangered in Canada...lol

 

[White Knight]

I have no official statistics but the notion that seals are still endangered seems ridicules simply based on personal observations. "Should seals continue to be on the protected list if they are not endangered?" I can't imagine they are endangered any longer. I can hardly drive my boat across the Santa Barbara Channel without running over one. They destroy Salmon and Steelhead runs and they do their damage to other fish populations as well. But still, that isn’t the point. The point, again, is if they have sufficient numbers do they still need to be protected or can I make a fur coat out of some of them—if I wanted to. I understand hunting cute seals can be an emotional subject, but we do allow hunting cute deer, majestic elk, Smokey the bear, cougars, bob cats, moose, wild boar and mountain goats—just to name a few. I can’t see any difference. If elk can be managed and hunted, why can’t seals?

 

[Coll]

I have no official statistics but the notion that seals are still endangered seems ridicules simply based on personal observations.

Are you kidding me? I see southern sea otters all the time and they are a threatened species. This is just a silly statement. As for "seal" hunting, there are many species of seals. The ones you probably see so many of living in California are harbor seals of which there is a pretty good population, around 200 to 300,000. To my knowledge, they aren't being hunted as they are protected under the marine mammal protection act.

 

[White Knight]

Coll, why protect a marine mammal (harbor seals) that has a population of 300,000? Isn't that enough? What should the number be? 500,000? 1,000,000? 100,000,000? At what point can we say they are not endangered? At what point are they being protected simply because they look cute and cuddly? Can they never be hunted regardless of population numbers? Not even hunted by Department of Fish and Game lottery tag--like is done for dear, elk, bear, etc.

 

[Tigerman]

In some areas seal hunting should be (and is) allowed in some form..