Here's a story straight off, " The National Fisherman," website. This guy claims that the way to help codfish stocks rebound is to slaughter sixty-percent of the seal population. That's 3.6 MILLION dead seals!
On the plus side, if this guy gets his way, we'll all be wearing seal skin boxers.
Seal killings advocated
4/13/99 Ottawa -- A Newfoundland politician is calling for massive reduction in East Coast seal populations as a way to save Atlantic Canada's depleted cod fishery.
Lawrence O'Brien called on Canada's Federal Fisheries Department to consider boosting its harp seal kill from five percent to more than 60 percent of the region's estimated six million seals.
O'Brien, who drew applause from his colleagues on the Commons Fisheries Committee, challenged the department's resistance to higher seal quotas, insisting that he believed it was not "practical to be taking less than 300,000 seals per year out of a population of six million."
He went on to say that "it's obvious that they're increasing faster than we can take them."
The Federal Fisheries Department currently allows for a 275,000 reduction in the seal population which is at its highest level ever.
Politicians from all parties have been urging the department to institute further reductions, especially in light of recent reports that estimate an average harp seal consumes more than a ton of fish annually. Department officials downplayed the seals' roles in damaging cod population, noting that only one to two percent of the mammals' diet is comprised of cod.
They further remarked that as a migratory species, seals consumed only 40 percent of their diet in Canadian waters. Department officials insisted that current scientific data does not support seal culls larger than 275,000.
Since the collapse of cod stocks in the early 1990s, Atlantic Canada lost over 40,000 jobs following the collapse of cod stocks in the early 1990s. Cod stocks have been slow to recover, puzzling scientists and fishermen.
Meanwhile, environmentalists stepped up publicity over the planned seal killings. The International Fund for Animal Welfare launched a national ad campaign Monday challenging claims that seals are responsible for the slow return of cod.
<END STORY>
Sad as it is, this viewpoint raises a nagging issue in my mind: Are we, as a species, qualified to manage natural resources? It's been proven in several cases, that when harvesting of species like deer drops too low, many animals die of starvation due to lack of habitat. If this guys numbers are correct, the seal population is eating 12 BILLION pounds of fish every year. Is there even that much fish left in the North Atlantic? Does that mean we sacrifice one resource, ( Seals,) to satisfy our desire for another resource, ( Fish & Chips.)
Will we ever know enough about the planet to make decisions like this?
Unfortunately, we're being forced to make decisions like this now, like it or not. Mistakes seem inevitable.
Resident Fish Bios.: Comments?
Jay