Once upon a time, the left coast of Canada had a seal hunt. They became a little too greedy and nearly decimated the seal population, and thus the hunt was banned so that the seal population could recover. The seal hunt never returned. What happened? The seal population not only recovered, it exploded. Seals eat fish, lots of fish. Not only does man like to eat fish, but killer whales eat fish, dolphins eat fish, grizzly bears eat fish, many bird species eat fish, and conversely fish eat things. It all strings together in a natural balance, and where man puts limits on how many fish we harvest from the sea, seals do not.
I recall a few years ago reading a story in the Vancouver Province that local people were noticing seals swimming farther and farther up stream. Why were they expanding their territory? To eat salmon, lots of salmon. Not only that, but vulnerable young salmon that were innocently and inspiringly following their dream of reaching the ocean. This slaughter of innocent life at the mouth of this voracious predator cannot be excused because the predator is cute. The seal population exploded and began swimming farther and farther up the Fraser looking for food. In 2009, when all these whales, bears, and birds lined up for the Sockeye run, their bellies remained empty because there were no fish. The seals on the other hand, remained fat and gorged, sunning themselves on docks and rocks while next years crop of grizzly cubs starve to death because mom didn't get fat enough to feed them.
We have too many seals, and the salmon are suffering. The grizzly bears are suffering. The orca whales are suffering. Birds are suffering. We can end that needless suffering by hunting the competition.
"In the absence of orders, go find something and kill it."
-Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
Oh and for the record, the Rommel quote was not intended to justify my desire to re-institute the seal hunt, but rather to illuminate the indiscrimante murder of salmon by glutonous seals.
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