canadian government culling seals

this is an alarming story, the canadian government is proposing to kill up to 70,000 seals in order hopes of restoring cod populations,
www.guardian.co.uk...
im not an expert but I have my doubts that killing seals will help restore cod populations, Im also sure that humans kill way more fish than seals, they plan to place a bounty on the seals, I honestly hope they reconsider this plan

reply to post by connorromanow

Canada's Atlantic cod stocks, once estimated at 1.5-2.5 billion fish of reproductive age, collapsed in the early 1990s from overfishing

From OP link

So the seals have to pay because of overfishing done by humans.

I really hope this doesn't happen.

reply to post by Miri08


its kind of stupid, but the economy wont be hurt by culling seals as opposed to limiting fishing

reply to post by connorromanow


Thats good news,not bad news.
I am ALL FOR the seal hunt!!

Sometimes balancing nature is good for us,I would rather the fishing industry didn't suffer because it affects jobs and people.
I would rather we have more jobs,more fish and a regulated way to do it....like we do.
The seal population will bounce back just like now and we will have to do this again.
I see NOTHING wrong with this whatsoever.

(cue the treehuggers )

What are you all talking about?

Seal culling is actually VERY common and has been done for decades.

We actually have a season for it.

And no, the over fishing was not the entire cause of the lack of cod. There are several factors in place including populatjion size of seals in the area. One of the reasons is that seals hardly have any natural predators in those areas for the naturally 'culilng' to take place.

~Tenth

reply to post by DrumsRfun

I am ALL FOR the seal hunt!!

the seal hunt has nothing to do with this, its about blaming and killing seals to fix a problem caused by overfishing

reply to post by connorromanow


I understand that but as the article states, killing the seals probably won't help and it's very like us to kill too much of one thing and then decide to "fix" the problem by killing something else. The economy is important but so is the ecology of our waters, the population of seals and taking responsibility for our own greed and shortsightedness.

reply to post by connorromanow


Being from Newfoundland I can tell you right now, culling the seal population is critical. Some estimates place the seal population at about 8 to 10 million seals and they eat approximately 11 lbs of food a day (cod mostly, which is their main food stuff). Now we've already depleted the cod stocks to the point where there is virtually no fishing allowed for cod. There is the food fishery in Newfoundland, which I've enjoyed many times, but anyone who does this is only allowed to catch so much per day and that's it.
Seals to me aren't cuddly and cute, their eating machines that will devour any species of fish that it can catch and eat and having 8 to 10 million of them (various species) eating on average of 11 lbs of food a day, I don't want to do the math.

reply to post by RedShirt73


well than its still not solving the proplem because they are only killing grey seals

reply to post by RedShirt73


Exactly.
When I made my post,I was thinking of you guys on the east coast who have alot of people making a living fishing.

To the OP.
Would you prefer people not being able to support their families because some environmental,politically correct do-gooders can feel better about themselves??

Originally posted by connorromanow
reply to post by RedShirt73

 

well than its still not solving the proplem because they are only killing grey seals

Ok, let me put it to you another way. You have 8 to 10 million seals and no food. Would you rather the vast majority of these seals starve to death from lack of food or cull the population to a manageable size and give jobs to people whose lively-hoods depend on this?

reply to post by connorromanow


There are too many seals because past generations eradicated their natural predators which is bad. Very very bad. Now we are attempting to balance the growing population to preserve their food source so that future seal generations can live on. The solar maximum isn't helping much in getting their predators back on track either, with melting polar ice caps and all. These things take time and if we don't kill them off, their population with grow to crazy amounts and they will go extinct.

reply to post by RedShirt73


valid point, but once again f it does help its probably only a quick fix to thefishery problem

reply to post by XLR8R


other than polar bears and whales what predators do they have, because appaerntly polar bear populations have gone up since the hunting of them stoped and the hopefully the same with whales

reply to post by connorromanow


Yes I agree, but with the melting of the ice caps traveling long distances is nearly impossible. The polar bears would travel and rest on ice shelves or small glaciers...what ever you want to call them. Same for the seals and they would meet somewhere in the middle. Same for the whales. The seals would rest on an ice shelf and the whale would slide up and catch a seal.

The only natural predators for seals in that area of the world would be bears (polar or otherwise) and killer whales. Both species are doing relatively fine, population wise, in that area. Even considering that these predators are only there hunting the seals at certain times of the year. For example, polar bears usually hunt in northern Labrador during the seals birthing season (easy quick meal of a seal pup).

Originally posted by XLR8R
reply to post by connorromanow

 

Yes I agree, but with the melting of the ice caps traveling long distances is nearly impossible. The polar bears would travel and rest on ice shelves or small glaciers...what ever you want to call them. Same for the seals and they would meet somewhere in the middle. Same for the whales. The seals would rest on an ice shelf and the whale would slide up and catch a seal.

You rarely get a seal or polar bear that gets trapped on an ice sheet that actually makes it to land. I've only seen it happen 3 or 4 times in my life.

reply to post by RedShirt73


Here's a funny video.

reply to post by RedShirt73


They don't get trapped they swim from one to the other.

Great, another thing to be scared about, ninja polar bears, lol.