What to do about seals?
Introduce bounty to harvest 10% of harps; use carcasses for pet food like kangaroos in Australia; immediately boost DFO science
The Atlantic Seal Task Team is accepting advice on priorities for DFO’s seal science; how to involve the fishing industry in science projects; and how to better communicate scientific findings. I emailed the following letter to the task team earlier this week.
Email your input to: DFO.SealTaskTeam-Groupedetravailduphoque.MPO@dfo-mpo.gc.ca
Monday, Feb. 15th, 2021
Atlantic Seal Science Task Team
Dear Sir/Madam,
I wish to contribute input to the work of the Atlantic Seal Science Task Team related to DFO’s science activities and programs regarding seals, and the role of the animals in the ecosystem in Atlantic Canada and Quebec.
To begin, I want to refer to the February, 1990 Independent Review of the State of the Northern Cod Stock by the late Dr. Leslie Harris, a report that questioned the impact of seals on the marine ecosystem.
The Review Panel, which held a series of province-wide public hearings at the time, was “repeatedly confronted” by inshore fishermen with the issue of the growth of the seal herds, and the impacts on the abundance of cod.
The panel considered two specific seal questions:
“First, whether increased seal predation is sufficient to alter the natural mortality figures for cod which have been used in population assessment models; or, second, whether seal predation upon common prey species such as capelin and shrimp is capable of affecting the growth rates of cod and, therefore, of modifying the weight-at-age data relationship.”
The Review Panel noted that it did not have precise data concerning the weight of food that a seal will daily or annually consume, but estimates based on experiences with animals in captivity suggested figures ranging about 6 per cent of body weight per day.
The Review Panel also noted that “a herd of several million animals possibly consuming 6% of its biomass daily does require fish of whatever species that must be measured in millions of tons,” and stated it was “clearly evident” that further study is required.
To that end, the Review Panel made two specific recommendations regarding seals:
“15.That research be undertaken or commissioned to establish seal feeding patterns and consumption rates throughout the year.
16. That every reasonable effort be made to understand the cod-capelin-seal interactions and to incorporate appropriate data into cod population assessments.”
From my understanding, those 31-year-old recommendations were never followed through on, and a herd of “several million” harp seals has now expanded, at DFO’s most recent count, to 7.6 million animals.
While DFO has carried out seal research, it’s been a bare minimum, and the impact of seals still isn’t factored into scientific stock assessments for commercial species such as cod, northern shrimp, caplin, and snow crab.
Today, the issue of the growth of the seal herds — and the possible impacts on the abundance of other commercial species — are echoed as much or more by inshore harvesters than they were in the late 1980s/early 1990s.
Currently, all three cod stocks adjacent to Newfoundland and Labrador are in the critical zone, northern shrimp (Area 6) is in the critical zone, crab stocks at their lowest level in 25 years, and Atlantic salmon is in year 29 of a commercial fishing moratorium.
According to the Sealers Memorial in Elliston (which obviously isn’t a scientific authority), harp seals consume 12 million tonnes of fish, or 10% of the world’s wild harvest. Those numbers hit home when you consider NL’s commercial fisheries landed 191,758 tonnes of fish in 2018.
In recent years the presence of harp seals has been recorded in our rivers, and communities, and we wonder why the commercial fisheries aren’t what they once were.
The above picture from March 2018 was taken when an estimated 150 seals were spotted on the ice about two kilometres up the Grand Codroy River on Newfoundland’s southwest coast.
This picture shows the dozens of herring contained in the stomach of a harp seal harvested earlier this month in Hall's Bay, near Baie Verte.
Seals are indiscriminate eaters that will consume whatever seafood is available to them.
Again, the late Dr. Leslie Harris recommended that “every reasonable effort be made to understand the cod-capelin-seal interactions, and to incorporate appropriate data into cod population assessments.”
From my perspective, that was not done, and Newfoundland and Labrador’s commercial fisheries pay/have paid a huge price.
My advice to the task team would be to implore the Government of Canada to immediately boost DFO’s science efforts so as to establish seal feeding patterns/consumption rates, and to incorporate such data into fish population assessments.
The fact that this hasn’t been carried out — more than three decades after the recommendation was made — reflects negligence/abdication of responsibility on behalf of DFO/the Government of Canada as manager of the country’s commercial fisheries.
As for how to increase the involvement of the fishing industry in seal science projects, I would advise the Government of Canada to immediately impose a bounty for licensed commercial sealers (even in the absence of markets) to reduce the population of seals — particularly harps — by 10 per cent, to start.
In trimming seal numbers, sealers could also record scientific information such as stomach contents, etc.
As for the precedence for such a harvest, in Victoria, Australia, the 2021 quota allocation for the Kangaroo Harvesting Program has been set at 95,680 animals — an increase of 37,780 from last year.
The program has used carcasses for pet consumption (although the program has been expanded this year so that the meat can be used for human consumption), and provides an income for trained harvesters.
The same can be done here in NL/Canada with harp seals.
Inshore harvesters in Newfoundland and Labrador have been waiting decades for DFO to get its act in gear with respect to seal science, and the time for action is now.
While opposition from anti-sealing groups is always a factor that must be taken into consideration, that concern must be balanced against the health of commercial fish stocks, and the livelihoods of inshore harvesters/the future of rural communities/the provincial economy, which are all in jeopardy.
Ryan Cleary,
St. John’s, NL
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