Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[IronNoggin]

Harbour seals selectively eat juveniles of salmon species most at risk

http://www.theprovince.com/news/local+news/harbour+seals+selectively+juveniles+salmon+species+most+risk/13427611/story.html

Given their population explosions along the entire west coast since they were afforded blanket protection, it is downright surprising we have any salmon left in many areas!! 

Shakin' the noggin once again...
Nog

[RalphH]

Much of the research - including the work on seal impacts on hatchery release of chinook salmon in Puget Sound - concentrates on zones with huge releases of hatchery raised smolts & fingerlings. Most of the problem is focused on hatchery releases & the timing and volume of releases. The Puntledge has been studied for many years and has a problem that in river and estuary artificial features concentrate the young salmon making them easy prey.

[arimaBOATER]

Too many of them.
Can they be trapped live in a trap & then brought to a slaughter house & killed with a stun gun.
Quick moral kill.
The seal must have value for their oil / meat.
But shooting them is cruel & sometimes just wounds them or like one seal was found totally blind because of a gun shot.
4-5 commercial boats should have a special lic. to trap them.

[CohoJake]

Too many of them.
Can they be trapped live in a trap & then brought to a slaughter house & killed with a stun gun.
Quick moral kill.
The seal must have value for their oil / meat.
But shooting them is cruel & sometimes just wounds them or like one seal was found totally blind because of a gun shot.
4-5 commercial boats should have a special lic. to trap them.

Or treat them like feral cats - trap and sterilize them to decrease the future population.  Perhaps there is some easy type of sub-dermal birth control that could be implanted relatively easily.

[arimaBOATER]

Or treat them like feral cats - trap and sterilize them to decrease the future population.  Perhaps there is some easy type of sub-dermal birth control that could be implanted relatively easily.

That's a positive idea.
But these seals can live up to 30 years.
Lots of breakfasts till they kick off.
Trap them & put them in a seal water zoo.
80,000 seals. Bus in school children,tourists,seniors from care homes, families, ...
Get the paid viewers feed the seals with dry dog food.

[CohoJake]

That's a positive idea.
But these seals can live up to 30 years.
Lots of breakfasts till they kick off.
Trap them & put them in a seal water zoo.
80,000 seals. Bus in school children,tourists,seniors from care homes, families, ...
Get the paid viewers feed the seals with dry dog food.

Yep, 30 years is a long time, but I think they key is to move the population in a downward trend over time.  I'm not squeamish about more violent options, but I just don't see how that would fly politically.  I'd love to offer the seal harvest to the BC first nations and the Tribes in Washington - if they could make something out of it economically, it would be a win-win.  Didn't the Canadian government try to find a commercial market for seal meat (and failed) when the Atlantic Cod fishery collapsed?

[RalphH]

the chance of a sanctioned seal cull or subsidized seal hunt are pretty much nil. Fishers who believe this stuff that the seal population is responsible for the decline in salmon numbers are dreaming in technicolor if they think that a cull will happen.

Almost all the seal predation problems are side effects of human engineering. Culls on the Courtney/Puntledge system about 20 years ago made no difference. Seal deterrent fences actually made the problem worse.

You can read about it here: http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/Library/274926.pdf

Of course no one cares to mention salmon declines on Rivers like the Puntledge were caused by dams and flow control as well as mine effluent that wiped out the salmon populations of the tributary Tsolum river. Providing an artificial abundance via hatchery operations actually attracted the seals to feed on the abundance.

[Tylsie]

Perhaps the most logical solution is more structure for the fish to hide!  There has been huge advances in hatchery technology, many spawning areas have been rebuilt, and there has been several attempts to study and improve adult survival! However, from the time they reach the estuary til they get larger they are on their own.

It has been proven time and again that the mouths of the local rivers were packed with logs and debris year round. Has anyone been down seen the mouths of many of the local rivers at low tide? A tire counts as structure! Now, obviously we will never see the estuaries packed with debris again because of boating concerns and other things but we could begin installing structures along many river entrances. It wouldn't be hard, even modified play ground equipment such as the wire domes or climbing cones placed out side of clearly marked shipping lanes (but still submerged) would make a huge difference. Also, expanding the eel grass replanting program and increasing the number of secured steel and natural logs to prevent over consumption by geese and such would make a huge difference. Many are already working on this but they need support! I don't believe the that the problems are complicated , nor are the the solutions. Seals are a natural part of the system, but the system only works as a whole!

[CohoJake]

Perhaps the most logical solution is more structure for the fish to hide!  There has been huge advances in hatchery technology, many spawning areas have been rebuilt, and there has been several attempts to study and improve adult survival! However, from the time they reach the estuary til they get larger they are on their own.

It has been proven time and again that the mouths of the local rivers were packed with logs and debris year round. Has anyone been down seen the mouths of many of the local rivers at low tide? A tire counts as structure! Now, obviously we will never see the estuaries packed with debris again because of boating concerns and other things but we could begin installing structures along many river entrances. It wouldn't be hard, even modified play ground equipment such as the wire domes or climbing cones placed out side of clearly marked shipping lanes (but still submerged) would make a huge difference. Also, expanding the eel grass replanting program and increasing the number of secured steel and natural logs to prevent over consumption by geese and such would make a huge difference. Many are already working on this but they need support! I don't believe the that the problems are complicated , nor are the the solutions. Seals are a natural part of the system, but the system only works as a whole!

So true!  Unfortunately, when so many of our river mouths were made navigable in the late 1800s/ early 1900s, they blasted out miles of log jams and reduced the mouth to one single, deep channel. The Skagit river mouth had a log jam several miles long that had to be removed twice.  Of course, at the time this was done the rivers were the only reasonable means of navigation because the lowland forest was too thick!

[arimaBOATER]

Yep, 30 years is a long time, but I think they key is to move the population in a downward trend over time.  I'm not squeamish about more violent options, but I just don't see how that would fly politically.  I'd love to offer the seal harvest to the BC first nations and the Tribes in Washington - if they could make something out of it economically, it would be a win-win.  Didn't the Canadian government try to find a commercial market for seal meat (and failed) when the Atlantic Cod fishery collapsed?

Good story that's not too dated. It also has 2 areas of interesting quick facts. Sealing in the Atlantic Canada still was active in 2015 so assume it still is happening.
Web search: FAQs: The Atlantic seal hunt CBC news / Canada
Posted May 5/2009.
(There's a market for oil meat pelts.
To me it 's a no brainer.
 Less seals = less fish being eaten.
Though many other factors are behind less numbers of fish.)

[IronNoggin]

The Answer:

The House Committee on Natural Resources has passed H.R. 564, the “Endangered Salmon and Fisheries Predation Prevention Act,” which authorizes the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to issue one-year permits to Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and several tribal groups to lethally take non-endangered sea lions in order to protect endangered and threatened species of salmon.

http://www.cbbulletin.com/437691.aspx

Cheers,
Nog - Have Gun, Will Travel 

[wildmanyeah]

If only our Seals did more of this!




http://www.biographic.com/posts/sto/catch-of-the-day

[Shmoke Shaman]

The question was asked, What else would they eat?

Apparently little girls in Richmond.

[skaha]

--why not hire one DFO/CO officer to look after the whole west coast...make up a bunch of rules like no harassing or hunting except during a limited entry draw system for trophy's only and put adverts in the paper about huge fines and increased enforcement.