shark meets seal, off Nauset

[Karl F]

yep Ted, a hundred or a thousand won't put a dent in the seals...but, will provide some great entertainment

only thing that will eventually hurt the seals, is some kind of epidemic of distemper, or something else, that will thin them way out...

[Blitzseeker]

I don't think anyone is really thinking the sharks will do anything to the seal population other than make for some excitement at the expense of a fairly hated adversary of the Cape Cod surf fisherman.

If there are 10 thousand seals on the Outer Cape (made up number as a stake in the ground), and there are ten sharks eating a seal a week for a month, that's only a half a percent of the population.

For me, personally, it is more:

(1) In the back of my mind, I'll always have the excitement of seeing those seals swimming 50 yards offshore and wondering if they are going to get whacked, and
(2) knowing there is at least something out there constraining what would otherwise be almost completely uninhibited growth in thier poplulation.....no matter how small that constraint may be

[JohnnyD]

Originally Posted by Karl F

yep Ted, a hundred or a thousand won't put a dent in the seals...but, will provide some great entertainment

only thing that will eventually hurt the seals, is some kind of epidemic of distemper, or something else, that will thin them way out...

Hasn't happened in S. Africa, nor San Francisco with the sea lions. These animals have lived thousands of years like this, in consolidated, high-concentration herds. I'm not holding my breath for some epidemic to occur.

An A-10 Warthog strafing the herds would be the only solution.

[Hooper]

Originally Posted by JohnnyD

An A-10 Warthog strafing the herds would be the only solution.

30MM cannons would be very effective!

[Karl F]

Sharks extend their visit in Chatham | CapeCodOnline.com


and most likely, here to stay....

[Pete F.]

Originally Posted by Karl F

Sharks extend their visit in Chatham | CapeCodOnline.com


and most likely, here to stay....

Now there are ten to twenty: They do check the internet.
Seriously I have always wondered how fish know where the bait is.

[Crow]

Lets see which Federally protected species do we kill...
Maybe this will be the on the agenda of a Town Hall meeting, once the losses in beach revenue are counted. I believe if the sharks keep people off the beaches they may be the first to go. I may be cynical but I think its going to take big losses in tourist dollars to get some one to figure a way to "thin the herd" with the seals and not freak out the treehuggers. Does anyone know if they still pupped on Monomoy now that its attached? We may need more Coyotes too.

[FishermanTim]

They won't do a damn thing until somebody gets attacked, and then it will be the sharks that get shot!
Like Blitz, I've been telling people this for quite some time now, and now it's finally happening.
Next will be the "scavenger" sharks like tigers and bulls, and then we'll really have a fish free-for-all in our local waters.

Maybe when the communities lose their shirts due to a sharp drop in tourism $$, they might think about the correct humane thing to do.... like explosive fish for the seals

Unfortunately the typical "powers-that-be" is to do a quick fix. That would mean get rid of the sharks. It's cheaper to get rid of up to 20 sharks that 6000 seals.

I say let the sharks have their fun and if we can help them in any way, so be it!

[OLD GOAT]

The funniest part of poor little seals is that Chatham is going to spend 300million dollars for a sewerage plant to keep the saltwater embayments clean all the while 6-8000 seals are crapping all over the sandbars. The population of Chatham is only 6-8000 people. It would make sense to me to have every tree hugger take a seal home with them to thin out the population

[Karl F]

Originally Posted by OLD GOAT

The funniest part of poor little seals is that Chatham is going to spend 300million dollars for a sewerage plant to keep the saltwater embayments clean all the while 6-8000 seals are crapping all over the sandbars. The population of Chatham is only 6-8000 people. It would make sense to me to have every tree hugger take a seal home with them to thin out the population

Orleans prolly gonna spend even more.....
Old Goat..they need some of that old cape cod common sense on them boards...but I think that has gone the way of the past too.
And they don't like questions either, we have found out over here...
they even had to come up with a "good nitrogen/bad nitrogen" answer to baffle things even more....and they keep changing info...
typical govt. project....just pay pay pay and shut up...
I still have not figured out why we been pumping everything into Skaket Marsh the last 20 years...great place to build a chit plant.....
and the clamming went straight to hell from Rock Harbor alll the way down thru Brewster right after.... and some strange looking grasses grew quick..

Now we are gonna sewer even more into there..
pump the chit outta the Pleasant Bay side over to the CCBay side...



injuneers and environutz is amazing sometimes....

But...back to Seals and their poo...

gonna be a trainload more of it coming, thats for sure.

[MAKAI]

I am jealous of the sharks.
though this will probably just concentrate the vermin a little tighter

[vanstaal]

would that be awesome to catch one from the beach