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Seals cause of fishery demise

Reader asks why did it take so long to identify fisheries’ biggest menace
16064843_web1_180606-SNM-T-Letters

Re: West Coast group campaigns for seal, sea lion harvest (News, March 6)

It appears the penny may have finally dropped on what has been decimating salmon stocks on the B.C. coast for decades now.

It should have been evident already years ago that seals and sea lions are a major predator. So thank you to the Pacific Salmon Foundation for its estimate of the “40 per cent predation factor” on salmon fry and smolts.

But why has this realization taken so long? Having lived on Digby Neck in Nova Scotia for six years, I can tell you that one of the first things I found out was that all lobster fishermen carry a shotgun on their boats to kill seals. And it probably accounts that there have been record lobster harvests in Nova Scotia and Maine in recent years.

Andy Neimers

Sooke