Seal Problems on the Pacific coast
A few posts back I briefly brought up the subject of wildlife management. Wildlife management is a contract between society and wildlife to find an reasonable balance. And in many cases it works well, but all wildlife management has to be adaptive. Which is to say adjustments must be made to reflect changes in wildlife populations. For example this happens regularly in fisheries management. If a species is experiencing decline, fishing regulations are tighten to help that species recover.
All of this came up concerning the seal population explosion along Northeast Atlantic beaches. And how this explosion has indirectly caused human fatalities by attracting great white sharks nearshore. Ironically the Pacific coast has experience a somewhat similar situation for years. No, not human fatalities. In this cases the large number of seals has nearly destroyed salmon runs in some location. Exactly what to do about this issue has been kicked around for year. Hell they even made decoy Orcas made to scare the seals off. No dice. Recently, however, the Pacific Fisheries Management folks are finally taking action, but allowing a culling of the seal population. This type of wildlife management adjustment is much need on our coast as well. Let’s hope it takes place.
www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/01/killing-sea-lions-save-salmon/581740/
