STOP federal scientists from killing 73,000 Grey Seals in Canada!

The Canadian Press March 23 2011 

Junk science and questionable political motives are behind a new federal report that calls for an experimental cull of 70 per cent of the grey seals in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence, a leading critic of Canada's annual seal hunt says.

Rebecca Aldworth, Canadian director of Humane Society International, was reacting Wednesday to the release of a science advisory report that says Ottawa should consider a five-year study that would start with the slaughter of 73,000 grey seals in an area stretching from eastern New Brunswick to Cape Breton, N.S.

The study, produced by the Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat, says the experiment would determine whether significantly reducing the grey seal population in the Gulf would help cod stocks recover from a drastic decline.

Fishermen in Nova Scotia have long complained that hungry grey seals have hindered the recovery of cod stocks, which collapsed in the early 1990s after decades of overfishing.

However, it also acknowledges there are such large gaps in research on the problem that a large-scale seal cull could just as easily lead to wiping out cod in the Gulf.

Calls to the federal Fisheries Department, which commissioned the study, were not returned Wednesday.

Aldworth said the document was designed to do one thing: curry favour with the fishing industry in advance of a federal election.

"The report underscores how very little is known about seals and fisheries interactions, and it reveals the very clear agenda of the Harper government to exterminate seals for their short-term political gain," she said in an interview from Montreal.

The study's authors acknowledge that according to one set of scientific assumptions, grey seals eat so few cod that elimination of the entire grey seal population would do little to help the cod recovery. Another set of assumptions was used to justify an experimental cull.

As well, the report's risk analysis says a cull could halt the decline of Gulf cod, but it could also hasten their demise and "lead to unforeseen, unpredictable and unintended consequences for the ecosystem."

The study says the impact of seal culls have rarely been evaluated, but other predator control programs have often resulted in unintended consequences. That's why any intervention in the southern Gulf would require a carefully designed program that would include rigorous monitoring, the report says.

 The report has been forwarded to Fisheries Minister Gail Shea, who will decide whether the experiment is a good idea %u2014 unless an election is called.