Too Many Seals

[Slipknot]

Originally Posted by FishermanTim

All the "touchy-feely" tree-huggin, PETA-lovin weirdos will be singing a different song when the seals start wiping out ground fish along their favorite "private beaches" and the seals take over the beach and turn it into a festering cesspool.

Originally Posted by likwid

We already beat the seals to that.

Likwid, maybe you haven't noticed Pleasant Bay and P-Town harbor, I understand your point though, but the seals have a LARGE part in the loss of flounder in Pleasant bay. And I don't like swimming in seal poop anymore than anyone else
We have to ask ourselves who is more important in the food chain, seals or us? I know which way I lean.

[likwid]

Originally Posted by Slipknot

We have to ask ourselves who is more important in the food chain, seals or us? I know which way I lean.

In the grand scheme of things? They are.
Fish are a luxury for you.
This isn't SE Asia where you catch a fish to feed your family for 3 days.

[RIROCKHOUND]

To slip thats true likwid, but seals are having an impact on commercial fisheries, and that is not a luxury.

[Slipknot]

Originally Posted by likwid

In the grand scheme of things? They are.
Fish are a luxury for you.
This isn't SE Asia where you catch a fish to feed your family for 3 days.

not yet

but if we keep going away from producing food, then we will be in trouble as a nation.

I find the deceasing farming in the country scary. We should be producing more food not less.

What purpose do seals on Cape Cod serve? are they food for other animals? no, they're poop is food for cod which just gives them worms. They just eat everything in sight and cause more problems than they are worth and you or anyone else will never change my mind, they can survive somewhere else and contribute to their grand scheme. I can easily fish elsewhere for my luxury as you call it , and I can buy fish at the market since I can afford it but I choose to catch my own sometimes. If we are forced to share the beach with those bacteria dirty animals, then so be it.

[likwid]

Originally Posted by Slipknot

What purpose do seals on Cape Cod serve?

They are part of the ecosystem.

are they food for other animals?

makos, great whites, porbeagels.

They just eat everything in sight and cause more problems than they are worth and you or anyone else will never change my mind, they can survive somewhere else and contribute to their grand scheme.

They've existed like this in Maine and I don't hear mainers complaining about them. They're EVERYWHERE in downeast maine, always have been.

I can easily fish elsewhere for my luxury as you call it

It *is* a luxury though. You're not starving, you don't HAVE to fish. You won't go hungry if you DON'T fish. You blow hundreds of dollars on making plugs and van staals and whatnot. You don't get up in the morning and say "if I don't go fishing my family will starve today."

Everything you've said here could be said about humans anyways.

[JohnR]

They just declared Polar Bears endangered. They eat seals. I see a solution. Ship a few (tens of) thousand north to Canada and put them with the Polar Bears as the only obstacle between them and the sea. Nature will sort the rest.

Besides, it would be an obscure revenge for the bass demolished in the New England Aquarium Big Dig Massacre

[Slipknot]

ok, about sharks, I'll rephrase the question. Is there a predator that can come close to controlling the seal population on the cape? a dozen or so loses per year to sharks does not qualify in my opinion.

I'm not saying kill them all like that Monomy seagull episode back a couple decades ago. But they're numbers could certainly use some thinning before all the fish are gone and then they will definately leave. 10,000+ seals in the area is a bit much can't you admit that as a human who also fishes?

Polar bears are starving, feed them a seal or 100, good idea.

[likwid]

Originally Posted by Slipknot

ok, about sharks, I'll rephrase the question. Is there a predator that can come close to controlling the seal population on the cape? a dozen or so loses per year to sharks does not qualify in my opinion.

A dozen or so with a barely recovering population of apex predators that were OH LOOK AT THAT WIPED OUT BY US TOO!

But they're numbers could certainly use some thinning before all the fish are gone and then they will definately leave.

See the issue is, the fish won't be gone, they're not going to wipe out all the bass and bluefish. If the numbers actually got that low they'd move on. You're anthropomorphizing seals. They're not going to stay in one spot and wipe it 100% clean, the only creature that does that is humans. Once a population of food starts getting lower, they'll move or eat something else.

10,000+ seals in the area is a bit much can't you admit that as a human who also fishes?

Are there 10,000+ seals? Has someone released these numbers as 100% accurate or are you just guessing?

Polar bears are starving, feed them a seal or 100, good idea.

Yeah they are, and its sad.

[Blitzseeker]

Likwid-

I am sympathetic to conservationist points of view in general, but I'm not sure I follow your logic here.

Once humans have f'ed things up and knocked nature out of balance, which with seals happened quite a long time ago, a resource management approach needs to be taken. They are multiplying very quickly, and by the thousands (there are scientific reports of 6,000+ out on the Cape, not sure about the 10,000 number). They are essentially unchecked by natural predators, and they are making a huge mess and ruining the fishing which has a huge economic impact. Something different needs to happen than whats going on right now. Just like deer. Once you kill off all the predators, as we did long ago, you have to allow a hunt or there will be so many deer that they'll pretty much eat everything and starve themselves. Seals are rapidly heading for a similar mess, if we're not already there.

Just my opinion.