Seal Kill PEI

[wgamble89]

So on the news the other day there was a story about 50 seals washing up dead, the pathologists comments have been a little vague so far to say the least (it would be pretty easy to tell if it was done by people) but I suspect it was the work of some local delinquents in the area. Damn shame to kill them and let them go to waste.

Story here http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/princ.../2013/01/29/pei-cp-seals-dead-follow-584.html

A P.E.I. wildlife pathologist says he suspects that people are behind the deaths of more than 50 grey seals that washed up in Murray harbour last weekend.

Pierre-Yves Daoust, a wildlife pathologist with the University of Prince Edward Island, says students from the school found the seals on the province's eastern shore Saturday, just a day after seeing them healthy in the same area.

He says he suspects the seals were killed by people as they were found with wounds on their bodies, but he is carrying out necropsies to rule out the possibility of infections or other natural causes of death.

Daoust, who works at UPEI's Atlantic Veterinary College, says it would be highly unusual to have such a large number of seals die so quickly of natural causes.

He says the results will be passed on to investigators with the Fisheries Department in about a week.

 

[JamesM]

Unfortunately there aren't many uses for the seals cause the export markets have been eliminated. Unfortunately the seals are capable of really damaging fish stocks and with little value placed on the seals their predation of locals main means of earning a living, we're going to see more of them going to waste like this and it will be worse once the generations that have the skills to utilize seals pass on with out passing on their knowledge.

 

[wgamble89]

Unfortunately there aren't many uses for the seals cause the export markets have been eliminated. Unfortunately the seals are capable of really damaging fish stocks and with little value placed on the seals their predation of locals main means of earning a living, we're going to see more of them going to waste like this and it will be worse once the generations that have the skills to utilize seals pass on with out passing on their knowledge.

A major problem with it is that there is a market for seal meat but as you say the market has been eliminated, the meat has a growing popularity in Asian countries but with it being villainized because they are cute and cuddly no one wants to be seen as the bad guy buying seal meat. But even with an overpopulation of an estimated 6 million in the North Atlantic no one should be killing them for fun out of the season and leaving them to rot it's just not ethical. Hell even if the fisherman were allowed to catch them for use as bate it would be better then leaving them to rot.

 

[Curly1]

The ice is pretty poor at the Canso Causeway this year and if we get a good blow from the south or rain with higher temps I can see more pups dead in the future. The ice is just not solid at all so far.

 

[PorkNBeans]

varmints of the sea.