Harbour Seal cull planned for BC !!!!!

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DiverDebbie

Contributor
Scuba Instructor
Messages
420
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Location
Vancouver, BC, Canada
I just watched Global news and was abolutely sickened to hear that another harbour seal cull is being planned for our province. The seals are once again being blamed for consuming all the salmon, so therefore, since humans like to interfere and play God, we should kill them!?!! It's not like humans don't do this sort of thing all the time. We're destroying our shark populations around the world with no regard to the consequences.
This time, it is right here in our own backyard.
A similar cull was done about 10 years ago, and according to someone at UBC (whose name I unfortuantely didn't catch), it was NOT a success and did nothing to increase numbers of the salmon. In fact, seals most like to eat hake, which eat salmon. Therefore if we kill seals, we increase the hake which in turn eat all the salnon. It's not rocket science!!!
The seals who swim with us a Whytecliff, and other sites around our province, are not only fun and playful, but they TRUST us, and now we are going to turn around and kill them! Despite my attachment to them as a diver, from a scientific standpoint this cull sounds barbaric and pointless!
Does anyone know anything that can be done, or anyone who can do something to prevent this?
 
Time to write your representatives. I doubt they'll listen to me, but if the locals speak up.

Bryan

PS: Maybe someone should propose an alternative method of upping the salmon numbers - a fisherman cull. Its proven they decrease stocks :shakehead
 
swankenstein:
I did a search and it seems like it's just a localized area recreational fishing lobby that is going to make a presentation asking for a cull. They do this all the time. Chances are, the government is going to tell them to bugger off as usual. Here's a link to another article:http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=09af7e73-d7d4-4dd7-811b-ebc25e3b3663

Oh, so if it's just a bunch of local red-neck sport fishermen taking pot shots at their local seals, that's ok? Sorry, I'm sure that's not what you meant, but this cull has been done before, and considering what we do constantly to our harp seal pups, and everything else in our environment, what's to stop our ridiculous government from wiping out harbour seals? IMO, even one seal killed, in attempt to allow some fishermen to enjoy their "sport" is ridiculous.

On a different but related note, for anyone who hasn't seen the movie Sharkwater yet, go see it. If your eyes aren't open to reality yet, they will be.

http://www.sharkwater.com/index.html
 
DiverDebbie:
Oh, so if it's just a bunch of local red-neck sport fishermen taking pot shots at their local seals, that's ok? Sorry, I'm sure that's not what you meant
No, that's not what I meant. I just mean that there are elements of the sport fishing lobby have a thing against seals and always have. And, yes, certain individuals shoot seals when they can. In my opinion, there used to be lots of seals and lots of salmon. The only different thing now is..... hmmm...us? I think our population passed the point where a hunter-gatherer society is sustainable. Some people claim to care about the salmon, but what they really mean is they care about them being around to kill for fun. I'm getting dangerously close to politics...
 
Sharwater is amazing1 Everyone should see it! I looked for couple of options to donate but could not find useful indormation......
 
Write a letter, or two, or ten.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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