I know there's a lot of harping about seals on this site (pun intended), but had to bring it up again in light of this article from MSNBC about sea lions being shot on the west coast. Clearly, people whose livelihoods are based on fishing (not to mention recreational) are going to extremes out of frustration (we saw this on the Cape last year).
'Unprecedented' killings of protected sea lions; fishermen suspected
I understand that many factors contribute to the poor salmon spawn out west and the disappearance of many fish species here in the east, but there is no question that seals/sea lions are a major reason many species are struggling to recover.
Why is there no political will to manage these animals the way other over-abundant animals (e.g., deer) are managed when more threatened species are in trouble? How can we get our politicians to stand up and say (for example) "If you really care about cod stocks, the seal populations must be culled." What's it going to take? When are the self-proclaimed environmentalists going to realize that you can't manage by individual species....you can't eat your cod and have your seals too! It's all interconnected.
As a side note, and I'll post it if I can find it, I did some calculations that show that in Massachusetts waters alone, seals consume more fish than the entire population of humans in the state....and it's not even close.
Had to vent.
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