Tag Archives: gray seal
Are they overpopulated, and should they be managed? Study Documents Growing Population of Gray Seals
Gray seal pupping season comes to an end off the coast of Massachusetts and Maine, as a group of federal, state and local scientists are finishing a study on the health of the animals. One of the research teams did its work on Muskeget island, a 240-acre spit of sand west of Nantucket that hosts the largest gray seal pupping colony in the U.S. Referred to by some as the diesel engine of the booming seal population in the region, which in the 1970s faced near extinction (BS), Muskeget has become dominated by breeding seals during pupping season.,, Ms. Murray said a 2016 study found 27,000 seals in Cape and Islands waters,, >click to read< 09:36
Virtual Interview with “Acoustic Dome” Team – would repel seals with sound waves, hopefully sharks would follow…
Concern is growing in the tourism industry that the party might be over for Cape Cod beaches if the local seal population – and thus the shark population – continues to grow. A growing population of seals – the sharks’ primary food source – appears to be drawing ever more sharks into our waters. Earlier this year an “acoustic dome” concept was floated by two Cape Cod men.,,,The gray seals are the “problem” and the solution. Few are quick to realize that the great white sharks are simply a symptom. Prior to the passage of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) in 1972 the siting of a gray seal in Cape Cod waters was a rare event. (now an estimated 50,000 in Cape waters.) >click to read<08:55
Law protecting seals needs to change as population grows
John Dowd is correct that we have a “booming seal population,” but he’s wrong on two other counts (“Still swimming with sharks,” Metro, Sept. 13). First, he says that Nantucket has no seal or shark problem. On the contrary, one of the Northeast’s most celebrated fishing destinations, Nantucket’s Great Point, is now effectively a seal refuge, and the small island of Muskeget, just to the west of Nantucket, has been called one of the largest gray seal breeding sites in the country. More important, the first step to managing an ever-expanding seal population, and the white sharks it attracts, is not, as Dowd does, to call for a seal cull, which is a political nonstarter, but rather to pass an amendment to the Marine Mammal Protection Act,,, and a short rebuttal. >click to read<16:33
Cape Cod gray seal population estimated at up to 50K
While the first day of the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission’s annual meeting, held for the first time on Cape Cod, dealt with threats to a tiny Mexican porpoise and massive Arctic polar bears, Thursday’s sessions brought the focus home with a profoundly local subject: gray seals. “These animals are reassuming their ecological roles,” said David Johnston, an assistant professor at Duke University. “And people freak out.” Seals are back in force, with between 30,000 and 50,000 living in the waters of Southeastern Massachusetts, primarily on and around Cape Cod, according to a new estimate produced by Johnston to be published in an upcoming report. Feelings about their return, however, are decidedly mixed.,, “They are unprepared that these predators are back in their environment,” Johnston said about people, comparing the gray seal’s historic comeback to that of the reintroduction of the gray wolf in the Western U.S. (I hate these people!) continue reading the story here 19:43
Gray seal population needs no protection – Mike Rice, South Wellfleet
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the giant panda is being taken off the endangered species list and reclassified as vulnerable. A nationwide Chinese census taken in 2014 found 1,864 giant pandas in the wild, up from 1,596 back in 2004. An estimated 40,000-plus gray seals alone call Monomoy Island off Chatham home. That leaves me wondering why the gray seal is still protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. As the gray seal population in Cape waters continues to boom, drawing more great white sharks to our area every summer, I’m left thinking the tourist industry here may soon join the fishing industry, and be classified as vulnerable, too. It’s time to de-list the gray seal from the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. Link 08:49
WhIther oh where do gray seals go?
“We don’t know much about what they do when they’re off the beach,” said Gordon Waring, who heads the seal program at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole. “Do they stay in Massachusetts waters? How far offshore do they go? Do they go to Georges Bank or are those Canadian seals? They are highly mobile.” continued@wickedlocalbrewster
Coalition pushing for seal control measures
Krogh describes the increase of the seal population of the Cape and Islands as an “infestation.” Along with Peter Howell and Guy Snowden, Krogh founded the Seal Abatement Coalition,,,,,,,Read More. Oil up the gun’!
http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120902/NEWS/209020327/-1/NEWSLETTER100
