Gray seal population devastating New England fishermen, federally protected seals eat all the fish and attract sharks

9/13/12, "Massachusetts Delegation and Governor Patrick Welcome Disaster Declaration for Fishermen," Sen. John Kerry
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Gray seals are "federally protected," human beings are not.



9/2/12, "Coalition pushing for seal control measures," Inquirer and Mirror, Jason Graziadei, via Cape Cod Times

"Bobby DeCosta remembers the days on the island when killing a seal and tak­ing its nose earned you a $5 bounty from the state. It was the early 1960s, and spotting a seal on the island was rare. DeCosta's fa­ther would shoot them if they strayed onto the beach, or popped their heads up above the water off­shore.

"If they saw five seals all win­ter, it was a big deal," said DeCosta, a charter boat captain and selectman.

Today things are much different. DeCosta and his charter boat Albacore are routinely stalked by a seal he calls "Mossy Back." The old bull, which DeCosta regularly identifies by the green moss growing on its back, has learned to follow the charter boat out into open water, and steal fish from the lines of his customers.

From Muskeget to Great Point, and all around the Cape and Is­lands region, a great resurgence of gray seals is playing out, and the bull seal that follows DeCosta's boat is just one of the symptoms of the seals' comeback.

The once-threatened species, under the protection of federal regulations since 1972, has been replenished by the thousands, a cause for celebration among environmentalists and sci­entists, but drawing the ire of an­glers and others concerned about the impact of the marine mam­mals on fishing, tourism and other marine and animal species. The return of the seals has also brought their predators to the region, as great white sharks have been spotted and tagged repeatedly off the Cape, and blamed for an attack on a swimmer in Truro.

"I think it's clearly over-popula­tion," DeCosta said. "You can't leave one species unchecked."

The National Marine Fisheries Service estimates the New England gray seal population has nearly tripled since 1999, when a stock assessment gauged that the species numbered 5,611 in the region. By 2011, the popula­tion estimate had jumped to 15,756 seals, according to a draft stock assessment by the NMFS. The impact of such a rapid increase has been acutely felt by Nantucket anglers.

"In some ways, the seals can be considered a small problem be­cause it's an angler's problem, but it does affect the attractiveness of this island to anglers," said Sconset resident Peter Krogh, a former dean and professor at Georgetown University.

Krogh describes the increase of the seal population of the Cape and Islands as an "infestation." Along with Peter Howell and Guy Snowden, Krogh founded the Seal Abatement Coalition, a non­profit organization that sees the influx of the marine mammals as a danger to the recreational and commercial uses of regional wa­ters.

The group's petition to amend the Marine Mammal Protection Act "to allow the dispersion of seals in the coastal waters of Cape Cod and the Islands" has garnered more than 1,200 signatures. And the effort is not just rhetoric. The coalition now has a Washington lobbyist, Kraig Siracuse, a partner and managing director of Park Strategies LLC, as well as environmental attorney George Grochala, working on its behalf.

Krogh, Howell and Snowden are seeking an area-specific amendment to the Marine Mammal Protection Act that would allow residents of the Cape and Is­lands region to simply approach seals (which is now considered harassment under the law) and use a nonlethal device — such as an acoustic beacon — to deter them from the beaches.

The written materials distributed by the coalition since its inception last year state "the problem of seals preempting human activity such as fishing, surfing and beachgoing in general is a big problem for Nantucket in particular. Nantucket has been historically a prolific fishing spot. But its shorelines are increasingly girdled by seals which are diminishing and driving away both the fishermen and the fish stock while actively interfer­ing with both recreational and charter boat angling."

Siracuse said he's now in the process of educating lawmakers in Washington about the issue, and considering the best approach for the coalition on the legislative front. "It's extremely difficult to amend any law, especially some­thing so emotional as the Marine Mammal Protection Act," Siracuse said.

But before pushing for any amendment, coalition members said, they simply want an accurate count of the seals around the Cape and Islands region from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The coalition believes a true census is needed to understand what it's dealing with.

The Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 was enacted in response to increasing alarm about species decline caused by human activity, and established a morato­rium on the killing, capturing or harassing of marine mammals in U.S. waters.

That those protections have re-established the seal popu­lation is something to celebrate, said Sarah Oktay, managing di­rector of the University of Massachusetts Boston field station on Nantucket. The con­cerns about the seals' impact, she said, should be put in perspective considering the species was nearly extinct in the region decades ago.

"I see this as a great success story, and (the complaints) are like saying, 'Wow, there's so many bald eagles they're blocking out the sun,'" Oktay said.

Biologist Stephanie Wood, who earned her doctorate researching gray seals in the Northeast U.S. and specifically on Muskeget, said island residents should keep in mind the broader context of the seals re-establishing themselves in the region.

"The most important thing to keep in mind is the population issue, that this is part of a much bigger population and much big­ger ecosystem," said Wood, who is now a contractor for the NMFS." via Free Republic

via Cape Cod fisherman caller to Howie Carr show