Tag Archives: Sheryl Fink

Are There Too Many Harbor Seals in British Columbia?

Earlier this year, Roy Jones Jr., a hereditary chief with the Haida First Nation, took a trip up the Skeena River, one of British Columbia’s prime salmon spawning grounds. Not far from the river mouth, he looked across the water at what he thought was a row of polished rocks. Then he pulled out his binoculars. “There were probably 120 seals lined up across that river,” Jones says. The seals were gobbling up juvenile salmon as the smolts made their way to the Pacific Ocean. It’s just one example of a problem that’s been growing up and down the coast, argues Jones, who recently co-founded an organization, to advocate for a cull of British Columbia’s harbor seals. A reduction in the harbor seal population is necessary to protect salmon species, some of which are highly threatened, Jones says. “We’ve got to do something, plain and simple.” >click to read<10:20

With the seal population increased to about 8 million, protestors of the hunt should spend time considering the impact on the ecosystem.

If indeed the sceptics have lessened their stance on the cruelty of the seal hunt, then it is on to the sustainability argument, says the provincial fisheries minister. Keith Hutchings was reacting to recent comments made by Sheryl Fink, the International Fund for Animal Welfare’s wildlife campaign director, as she made a visit to Corner Brook this week. Read more here @westernstar  21:48

Fink forecasts end of seal industry

Sheryl Fink is forecasting the demise of the seal industry, but how that happens should be determined by Newfoundlanders and Labradorians.  “It’s not for a group like (International Fund for Animal Welfare) or Pam Anderson or anybody else to sort of provide the solution,” the wildlife campaigns director for IFAW Canada said during an interview at The Western Star in Corner Brook Tuesday. Read more here westernstar  09:46