Every year (well, the past three anyway ) I spend patriots day on the water hoping to boat that first striper of the season.So far I'm one for three.This year was not unlike last, warm,calm, and striper less! I know it's early, but I can't help it.This year I was amazed at the number of seals. We counted over fiftey! I've never seen this many seals at the entrance to the weweanic river. A couple in the canal maybe, but nothing like this.Is this normal, or are their alot more seals around? Tight lines to all!!!

Every year we get more & more .. :mad:

They suck! :exp:

Funny how people I've asked about seals and if they were a problem 30-40 years ago and they say "no... not at all" even when their numbers were stronger than they are now. If they aren't concerned, why are you so concerned?

Well to be honest, I'm pretty sure they have a little more right to the fish than we do. ;)

I'm eagerly awaiting the first s-b member to get nailed by the environmental police for looking at a seal wrong then posting bitching about it on here how the EP took away everything. :hihi:

Don't need to ask.
Porbeagels have been spotted "inshore" all winter long.

They love them some seals.

As far as populations, if the seal population is gonna bring back the threatened population of alot of larger sharks to where they should be, I'm all for it.

Seals aren't the only thing the "bigger fish" eat. ;)

I remember reading somewhere---don't recall whether if it was here or on FFSW---some orca sightings off Cape Ann this past winter. A seal is just an hors d'oevre to one of those suckers--or a toy ;)

Killer whales are reputed to be among the few creatures who kill for sport in addition to for food.

I was out fishing near halfway rock (think thats the name) between Prudence, Middletonw, Newport, Jamestown, kinds in the bay between all three and a big plump seal showed his head near the boat and stared at us for awhile and then went back down to take all the days catch. When do they move up north again ?

Saw 2 of them today in Buttermilk Bay..And 4 floating down the canal at the Maritime Academy...

and a big plump seal showed his head near the boat and stared at us for awhile and then went back down to take all the days catch.

Yes, they're nasty vindictive creatures that drive around in steel trawlers and midwater drag every last fish into oblivion.

Oh wait, thats not seals....

I saw one 15 feet from shore last night in Hull.

Likwid, are you trolling, joking or what?

Likwid there were no seals around 25 30 years ago I was full time commercial fishing up until a couple of years ago [[shelling fishing]] which means I was on the water 12 months a year // back then in RI or Mt Hope bay /if someone saw a seal //it made the front page of the local paper // about 15- 20 years ago they started to increase steadly /at first when we were digging / ya would stop & watch them ..//the last ten years they have just mulipied [sp] >. We now have boats taking customers seal watching //// the problem besides eating Stripers //is Flat Out / what do you THINK they eat from November thru April // eels & Winter Flounder // every time I see one feeding its on them // The winter flounder population is a joke// I haven,t caught one in the bay in ten years / I,ve heard of a few caught but never seen them // eels we use to pull [[[just 3]] eel pots & have enough eels to fish 2 guys for a full weekend /& still put back the market size// now === I didn,t catch 5 bait size all last year //////
Oh yea / by the way the // they eat them tooooooooo .....

Likwid, are you trolling, joking or what?

Partially, there's no point in complaining about it, they're not going to reinstitute hunting seals for a reward, ever.

If anything the DMF will handle their populations, but that even is a pipe dream.

WE/our past relatives screwed up the population of everything, and now we pay.

Just like the photos of giant mounds of striped bass being taken commercially, what? You think they were just gonna magically learn how to reproduce faster? I think not.

Honestly the division of marine fisheries along with the rest of the groups need to take a long hard look at all fisheries and start over again. Something really needs to be done soon especially with certain fish that don't have as much value as others having their populations explode and offsetting the stocks. At this rate, dogfish will replace striped bass in New England as the primary target. :doh:

We host the southernmost body of seals on the east coast and they don't leave in the summer now. (so much for global warming). Seals never spent the entire year here. They would leave for cooler waters when spring came. The reason they are three fold IMO...they are protected now (ie, no season for harvest) and there is food for them here and it is too crowded further north. GP, monomy and a couple other islands are overrun with them. The feed heavy and now raise their young here all summer. It is time to take them OFF the protected list, and start to thin the heard.

IMO That GW shark came inshore to feed on these critters. I bet we see a few more in the next couple years.. When the cape and islands experiences a real life Jaws in the next few years....they will determine it is because of the seal population and THEN they will act because it is effecting their wallets. I don't think the folks that act to "protect" some species have a total feel for the entire big picture and what reactions it may have on the local species. I think they mean well, and they like patting each other on the their backs because they think they are saving mankind but most of them are really disconnected from reality.

Seals should not be here in the summer....I only hope is they develop a taste for plover.

Karl I couldn't agree more. Apex predators are already on the rise in our waters. More and more reports from Chatham by Charterboat Captains who have seen massive sharks crusing close into the beach. Some have even witnessed attacks and some people are finding mangled half eaten seal bodies on the beach. Throw in (I think at least 2) killer whale sightings and it may make for a memorable next few years. IMO surfers and fishermen on the back beaches BEWARE. These seals are such a perfect food source for these apex predators. It has taken a few years, but with the increase of the seal population and the spanwning and birthing on Monomoy and Tuckernuck.....the dinner bell is ringing loud and clear up and down the east coast.

IMO That GW shark came inshore to feed on these critters. I bet we see a few more in the next couple years.. When the cape and islands experiences a real life Jaws in the next few years....they will determine it is because of the seal population and THEN they will act because it is effecting their wallets. I don't think the folks that act to "protect" some species have a total feel for the entire big picture and what reactions it may have on the local species. I think they mean well, and they like patting each other on the their backs because they think they are saving mankind but most of them are really disconnected from reality.

Seals should not be here in the summer....I only hope is they develop a taste for plover.

Open season on the cuddly widdle seals will happen right around the same time they allow skeet-plover shooting.

Not only do the people who are trying to protect have no vision, neither do the people trying to allow open season on other critters.

#%^( Seals!!

Chatam in August!! They are here all year long now!!

I fished on Monomy from shore about 3 years ago and don't remember that many seals there. Have they started residing year round recently? :huh:

They have been there for years now and the heard is getting bigger all the time!! Thats not even the pic I was looking for!

This is going out of Stage Habor and then going out the cut. Just around the corner from open water!
Let me tell you it sucks when they strip your line clean when they grab your Bass :zup:

We need more of them here to take care of the seals!!

Yes, we f'd up the ecosystem and we're gonna pay for it. The ocean isn't an aquarium for us to manage. We killed seals, whales, fish, sharks, etc. to the point of oblivion. You then protect them, but pollute the water and harvest their food.

Claim victory for recovering populations, but the ecosystem is so fragile b/c of the damage. Stripers come back but are increasingly sickly b/c we're wiping out bunker. Recovering seals overpopulate b/c they are unchecked by predators such as the big sharks or orcas... oh yeah, we wiped them out too, or they vacated cause there weren't any seals.

The answer isn't to wipe out the seals again. The answer is to stop wiping out bunker, herring and mackerel. If they are abundant, seals won't be eating bass.

And hopefully the top predators will return and keep the seal populations down, but it won't happen all at once.

Seals aren't the problem... we are. Before we came along, there were seals and there were bass and there were sharks, etc, etc. and it wasn't a "problem"

The answer is Simple:

Put the Striped Bass Fisherman on the Endangered Species List.

Then sanction out the Seals... and the Plovers!