Request for Seal Study Made

[Slipknot]

Originally Posted by zacs

Even if they find there is a population problem, what are they going to do?? have a seal hunt? It will NEVER happen.



This is why you cape guys don't have the fishery you once did, IMO.

Zac

Zac, the seals have ruined the fishing we once had just 4 years ago.
They decimated all the flounder in Pleasant bay, they will continue to eat everything around here till it's gone. They target us fisherman to get an easy meal when we manage to finally hookup, then we risk losing the plug and the fish. they all must die or go away.

[Redsoxticket]

Would someone with a creative writing style post a letter that we all can use to submit to the senators.

The seal problem at the cape will most likely expand to the entire east coast The capes problem is everyones problem.

[Slipknot]

Originally Posted by Redsoxticket

.

The seal problem at the cape will most likely expand to the entire east coast The capes problem is everyones problem.

what do you mean? it already has expanded
those bastages are everywhere, and you are right, they are spreading out further and further.

[likwid]

Zac is right, trying to raise a seal bounty again would be like trying to make it open season on Otters or anything else thats cute and cuddly.

Unfortunately the sharks don't reproduce/start inhabiting a location nearly as fast as seals do.

I'll bet there's a SEAL ATTACK on a human either by the end of this year or by the middle of next summer.

They're waaay too comfortable around humans already.

[zacs]

Originally Posted by Slipknot

Zac, the seals have ruined the fishing we once had just 4 years ago.
They decimated all the flounder in Pleasant bay, they will continue to eat everything around here till it's gone. They target us fisherman to get an easy meal when we manage to finally hookup, then we risk losing the plug and the fish. they all must die or go away.

What I was saying, and please correct me if i'm wrong, is that the main source of food for stripers on the cape historically has been sand eels. If the seals are eating the sand eels more voraciously (sp?) than the stripers, there is your problem. Not the seals eating the stripers, which I know happens, but if there is no bait, that is a much bigger problem.

And you guys can write letters, picket the state house, start a hunger strike, whatever. None of it will make any difference. You have a better bet of getting open season on piping plovers then you ever have on moving, hunting, or otherwise disturbing a marine mamal, especially a cute seal.

I feel bad for you guys, and I hope the seals don't make it down this way in those types of numbers... but hunting seals on the cape will NEVER NEVER EVER be allowed in this day and age.

Zac

[Flaptail]

Death to Seals on Cape Cod Beaches. Bring back the 70's when they were only here in the winter. How about some seal birth control? Bring back the sand eels and Window pane flounder and the bass to the beach. We have rights to just as much as the animals.

[Karl F]

When on the cape, in recent memory has anyone caught a sand dab off the beach.. flounder, or fluke, in Pleasant Bay, or Nauset Harbor?sand eels?, how abundant they were remember?

zacs, a young man, marine biologist, that I speak with where I work, his hobby is studying these seals, I am going to ask him to share his data with the Chatham Selectmen, he dives, and boats and is following the seals on his own time.. Get Ready.. he feels that they are starting to follow the food chain south of us, as they have more or less cleaned the cupboard here... hope you welcome them to clean your area of bait and fish, I will bid them good riddance.
I have heard that the greys ( a few) have been spotted as far south as the Hudson this year!
That is how they start, a few at a time....

no wonder the animal activists continually win, if sportsmen lay down so easy... guys that are writing .. keep it up, it might not have a snow balls chance in hell, but keep trying.. rec, or comm, one thing both groups know.. is the seal must go, or at least thin the herd..
People, and Sportsmen have rights too.. the Plover folks, and the Seal folks have lost sight of that.. let us not join them.

[tattoobob]

We just won a big battle with the Canadian Geese and hopefully we can do the same with the seals, the plovers is a tough battle but we can win that one to.

[macojoe]

Back 10 years ago I use to rake sand eels right in pleasent bay!! Right on the bar out front the at the mission.

Last year I could not get any!!

Been 2 years since I have gotten a Fluke in Little Pleasent Bay.

KILL KILL KILL KILL SEALS!!

[Bass Babe]

I don't think there'll be a seal hunt anytime soon, but officials could certainly up the potential biological removal (PBR) of one or more of the 4 seal species found around here. That means more bycatch allowed for the comms. There is a way to take more, maybe just not a public clubbing. To find info on how the populations are doing, how much removal is allowed, how much longer we can expect the species to be overprotected, and more info, check NOAA's stock assessment reports. They can be found at http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/sars/.