Jet boat in the head might be the answer
Harbour seals pose threat to fish stocks, says Pitt River Lodge owner
By Larry Pynn, Vancouver SunApril 9, 2010
Harbour seals on B.C. coast.
Photograph by: Peter S. Ross, HandoutThe operator of a fly fishing lodge on the upper Pitt River fears that vulnerable winter runs of steelhead and chinook salmon could be wiped out by a couple of hungry harbour seals that have positioned themselves strategically at a canyon.
Dan Gerak of Pitt River Lodge said in an interview Friday the two seals have navigated low water levels on the river and are now living in a canyon 16 kilometres upstream from Pitt Lake.
"Anything that comes by, they're feeding on them," he said. "They've found the perfect spot for catching these fish and are just chowing down. Nothing seems to be getting past the canyon."
Gerak is loathe to ask for the seals to be culled because he feels they are only responding to a lack of food elsewhere.
"It's an overall problem," he said. "That is what's bringing them up the canyon. We didn't have this problem before when the salmon runs were huge. The seals had more than enough fish. Now you have the seals feeding on the last of these remnant runs."
Gerak estimates that the winter steelhead run numbers no more than 40 fish on the upper Pitt River, the winter chinook run even fewer. Sport fishing is strictly catch and release on the river.
But he believes it will benefit no one, including the seals, if the already marginal runs of winter steelhead and chinook are wiped out.
"Something's definitely got to be done," he said. "If you don't get rid of them you're ending a cycle of a species that will be gone forever. The seals are destroying their own food source."
Years ago commercial fishermen would routinely shoot harbour seals, which served to keep them wary of humans, said Gerak, adding he's seen well over 150 seals on log booms at the mouth of the upper Pitt River in summer feeding on larger sockeye runs.
Peter Olesiuk, a federal marine biologist based in Nanaimo, said that federal legislation does allow for the culling of harbour seals posing a threat to fish farms as well as wild stocks returning to estuaries and rivers to spawn.
But he said it would only occur after a professional fish biologist had assessed the situation.
"Seals are opportunistic predators," he noted. "But it's kind of unusual for two seals to sit there and eat an entire run."
Gerak said another 10 seals are also hanging out where the river empties into the lake.
The fisheries department culled a total of 52 harbour seals in 1997 and 1998 to benefit chinook salmon on the Puntledge River on Vancouver Island.
B.C.'s population of harbour seals have increased 10-fold since the federal government afforded the marine mammal protection from commercial harvest and bounties in 1970 and are now considered stable.
In comparison, Steller seal lions (which are capable of catching salmon in the open ocean) number about 25,000 on the coast and continue to grow. "The average sea lion consumes 10 times as much as the average seal," Olesiuk said. "They're considerably bigger animals and they have a higher metabolic rate. They are now the dominant predator."
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Harbour seals on B.C. coast.Photograph by: Peter S. Ross, Handout
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