KILLING SEALS OF COURSE

did anyone see the srticle in the oregonian about sea lions and seals. Their populations are so high now they are thinking of lifting the 1972 Marine animal act thing, because their numbers are too great. In the article they said too many fishing charters in california would attract seals that would take fish off peoples lines. Has this ever happened to any of you? In the article they said that it would allow the killing of the animals until an alternative method was found.

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Serial Seal Killer

[TheRogue]

The federal government is acquiring land and spending dollars every day to save suckers and snails and flys and God knows what else.....you can bet a loosening of the Marine Mammal Act won't happen.

I'd be all for it, though!!!

Seal tag drawing, 500 tags, 1 week season, Oregon Coast.

TR

Mr. Serial Seal Killer, welcome to our BB. We look forward to your interesting viewpoints. However, I request of you to re-register and use a more appropriate moniker or name. The moniker you have choosen may be offensive to some people, especially considering that at this time the seals are still under Fed. ESA protection. Thank you for understanding. - With that said, I too am frustrated with the imbalances of nature caused by lack of proper implimentation of fish & wildlife policies throughout the Northwest. Over-population of seals and their predation of salmon is not welcomed by us serious salmon & steelhead fishermen. I hope the government finds an amicable solution to control them, such that we don't have groups like PETA raising havoc. It would be nice to be able to round them up and relocate them far away. However, WDFW has tried that a few times with "Hershal" the sealion & his buddies from the Ballard Locks fish ladder area and had them reappear in a few weeks. Maybe we can "invite" a few orca pods from the San Juan Islands down for a visit? They also eat salmon though. Maybe paint out boats to look like killer whales & great whites? Here's a better idea: Indians historically took seals & sealions. They seem to have strong control over the Feds in matters of fish & wildlife, including the power to overide the Fed. Endangered Species Act in the netting of ESA fish in the Columbia R. and other places in Washington. How about an Indian season on seals?!? What they don't consume could be sent to Asian markets for profitable return. And they, and us, would then have more salmon to argue over! Any other ideas guys? - RT

[TheRogue]

That is absolutely an incredible idea, RT!! I don't know why anyone has thought of the tribal route before. I'd love to watch a couple of people go out onto the docks and "harvest" some.

Hope this gets out to some appropriate sources.

TR

Yep....need to change that S.S.K. name.

[Sandybar]

ssk Yep I had this happen to me at bouy 10 and one occasion...hooked into a coho and a seal wanted it for dinner to...the seal won and took my fish!!!!!

I dont think 500 tags are enough, maybe 5000 the first year and 500 every year after. Ive heard that if you hug a seal pup that the mother will ignore it, maybe we need a hug your seal pup day?

Sandybar

[NorthRiverS]

Hmmmmmm. I wonder what seal steaks would taste like ?

Better yet, trade indian salmon and steelhead quotas for sea lions. Every pound of fish for 100 pounds of sea lion.

[garyk]

Sadly so typical, blame a predator that co-evolved with the salmon in a stable relationship, for the salmon problems.

Meanwhile Slade Gorton and Gordon Smith (just to name two) together with their corporate friends are screwing us all (and the fish too).

garyk, as usual people like you would word it like we think the sea lions are the only problem. Obviously they are not, but if you don't know that their population is severely out of control, you need to open the blind eye you have for the problem.

[dww]

Like many of you I have seen this problem from one end of the coast to the other; seals stealing crab bait, taking silvers off the line above the Metzger bridge and yes Hershel at the Ballard Locks. I don't think we really need to substantially reduce the population; I think some limited tag hunting or even native american permits would give them the natural fear of man that they have had for before the marine mammal protection act.

[V. Green]

I had this happen a few times when my family used to own a 38' & a 45' commercial salmon troller. You would come up with the head of salmon on an infrequent basis and then would see a seal pop up. However, we lost more fish to sharks than to seal.

My Dad had a permit to kill problem seals but I never saw him shoot at one, sharks were always more of a problem for us. Most seals would keep away from us, so they really were not a problem. Anyway seals were here before us and eating fish has always been there way.

I would rather see Catch & Release on all fish, Removal of Dams, Polution Controls, and In-Stream Water Rights before we start killing seals and birds to protect salmon/steelhead.

Just My $.02


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V. Green
orfish@hotbot.com
http://pages.hotbot.com/sports/orfish/V.GreenMain.html

BUT, there are so cute!!!! (500 pounds
of bad breath) If you ever saw one come
into a tidewater hole and bleed it out,
I vote the for Indian Season on Seals!

Seriously, as with Ballard Locks, it's
a matter of factual numbers sometimes,
and in that case as with many other seal
feasts that go on, the Seal(s) should have
lost not the wild steelhead run.

All we ever see though is the baby seal
murders, which ain't pretty and ain't
what I advocate either.

Sure wish the problem ones could just be
put down though.

I've got another idea to augment my Tribal season idea. Stick some seal birth control medication into your herring so that if it gets eaten by a seal, via a salmon on your line, it will become sterile. Only to work on seals of course, not people. Or affects be nullified by cooking. Anyone know if such a scenario could work? - RT