Tag Archives: seal cull
Winter skate are dying in huge numbers, a new scientific paper points the finger at a big herd of seals
A “striking conservation success” in Atlantic Canada has turned into a “serious conservation problem” as rebounding grey seal herds threaten depleted bottom-feeding fish in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence, according to a new research paper from Canadian and U.S. scientists. The focus is on the winter skate, a little-known shark relative with a flat body and a long tail. “It’s quite dire. The skate have declined by 98 per cent since the mid-80s,” said Doug Swain, a federal fisheries scientist based in Moncton, N.B. The paper concludes grey seals are the likely cause of an “unprecedented” winter skate annual adult mortality rate of between 65 and 70 per cent. >click to read<09:20
Seal cull not yet warranted despite large salmon diet say researchers
Harbour seals off B.C.’s South Coast may consume up to 60 per cent of the Strait of Georgia’s young chinook and coho salmon every year, according to UBC research. Growing concerns about B.C.’s salmon numbers has focused on orca populations and rising water temperatures in the past, but this study suggests the dramatic increase in the harbour seal population in recent decades may play a role as well. Still, the connection between low salmon stocks and a large harbour seal population is not clear enough to warrant a seal cull, scientists warn. Read the foolishness here 10:49
