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All the way from the U.K.: [URL="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6220667/Concerned-Cape-Cod-beachgoers-demand-officials-reduce-seal-population-following-fatal-shark-attack.html"[/URL]
'They're eating our children': Hundreds of furious Cape Cod beachgoers demand officials kill off seals to help cut down shark attacks after 26-year-old man is killed
Cape Cod residents want officials to reduce the seal population because they think the animals are attracting great white sharks
There are a reported 30,000 to 50,000 seals living in the waters of Southern Massachusetts, primarily in and around Cape Cod
Locals made the suggestion during a public forum on Thursday two weeks after a 26-year-old man was killed in a shark attack
Arthur Medici was killed on September 15 after he was bitten by a great white shark just off Newcomb Hollow Beach
keep people safe from sharks.
One by one residents tossed out a number of suggestions on how to deter sharks, including demanding officials to look into reducing the growing seal population on Cape Cod beaches. Many believe increased numbers of seals are attracting sharks hunting for food.
'The seal population on the Cape is way of our control. They're eating all of our fish and now they're eating all of our children,' said resident Gail Sluis of Brewster.
No sharks or seals are worth a young man's life — they're just not,' she added.
According to a 2017 report by Cape Cod Times, there are 30,000 to 50,000 seals living in the waters of Southern Massachusetts, primarily on and around Cape Code.
City officials acknowledged the seal population has grown tremendously but told locals at the forum that there are federal laws preventing the removal of seals.
'I can understand the passion for wanting to remove seals and white sharks,' said David Pierce, director of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, '(But) it's likely never going to happen, despite the fact that there's been a death.'
Town Administrator Dan Hoort added that it would take an act of Congress.
'There isn't any solution but effective deterrence,' Hoort said, according to the Boston Herald.
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