I could support a seal cull if we as a species could take responsibility for our actions, come up with a short term and long term plan and goals, and go from there. Those of you who are using "historic numbers" from the 60's and 70's are not accurate. I saw a report where a marine biologist reported that "historic numbers" for seals and sea lions from the late 1880's would place them in the 150 000 range or higher. Can not remember exactly, but he said it was much higher than the numbers being reported on the various fishing sites.
So, what has happened? My gut tells me we are to blame, and now we scapegoat the seals and sea lions and call for a cull for somewhat selfish reasons. Moving up estuaries and grabbing salmon is an evolved, survival strategy. These animals cannot be blamed for this. It is not much different than us evolving and getting "better fishfinders" to find the fish, become more efficient, and catch more fish. In a sense, I guess their evolved ability is infringing on our need to have it all our way.
Historically, did so many animals move up systems and wipe fish out where they were easy to pick off? No they did not have to. There were enough salmon and sea life in the ocean to support their numbers, they could find their food in the ocean, and they did not have to make efforts such as entering estuaries. But, at the turn of the century, we totally changed the landscape when it came to harvesting and "living off" the fish species. Up to the turn of the century, it was sustainable and we harvested for the purpose of feeding ourselves. Once the turn of the century came around, the fishery became an economic industry and the sustainability of the system was disregarded. Huge canneries opened up and fish were harvested and sent all over the world. The nature of catching fish improved, got better, and we harvested larger numbers much quicker. We then came up with salmon farms and salmon ranching as strategies to increase harvests. At the same time, we destroyed the habitat they were reared in and dedregated systems and their spawning habitat. We still demanded what we had come to expect, and thus blamed other predators such as seals and sea lions, culled them, and wiped them out.
Seal and sea lion populations are re-bounding and moving back to historic levels, yet the food resources are scarcer and hard to find. They are evolving and coming up with strategies to feed themselves and thus survive, and because they are doing this and interfering with our piece of the pie, we decide to punish them and cull them once again.
Now, even though I have pointed out the flaws of our ways, sounding anti-cull, this is not the case. For the long term health of salmonoids and the long term health of the seal and sea lion populations, I believe we need an organized cull of some sort to support the various species. But, this is a short term solution and unfortunately, at this point, it sounds like their is no long term plan. The long term plan must be addressed or else the cull is useless, reckless, and unfair. The long term plan needs to lay blame with us for the situation with salmon and we need to address this and fix this.
Long term, we need to look at the resource and cannot choose to exploit it and abuse it as we have. If we approve a cull, we need to also address all the various segments involved in resource exploitation, how they impact fish stocks, and all need to have increased/improved regulations put in place to allow the fish stocks re-build. As the fish stocks re-build, we need to recognize we also need to allow the seal and sea lion stocks re-build, and grow to historic levels along with the fish.
If such a plan was stated, devised, and addressed, I could then feel better about a cull.
As it stands now, it just reminds me of short term plans to address invasive species in lakes. We discover bass or perch in a great fishing lake. To save other nearby fisheries and lakes, we poison the whole lake with Rotenone, wiping out all that was alive in the lake. We start again, introduce our desired species, help our desired species to re-build, to then discover again that human anglers have once again introduced invasive species to the lake again, so we once again kill the lake and start from scratch.
With the current situation, I do feel we need a cull to benefit the fish and all the various species that make use of the fish resource. But, this short term solution should only have to be utilized once, as we realize our negative impact, take responsibility, and work to correct it. I would not like to see a recurring cycle where we keep blaming seals and sea lions and cull them on a recurring basis due to our own errors and selfishness.
Dano
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Topic: Sea Lions vs Salmon/Steelhead in Oregon (Read 8479 times)