Wait on, back up a sec, you do realise the seals, despite the common name, are a native species which was nearly hunted to extinction in the early 1800s and has still not recovered to the previous population level? My understanding (reconfirmed by mr google) is that their diet is primarily mass schooling fish and squid species found off the continental shelf like arrow squid, slimies and tunas, probably because they are more plentiful and easier prey than more dispersed shallower water species.
Put simply the seals are not the problem and my money would be on the primary cause for inshore fish mollusc and crustacean depletion being primarily due to overfishing and habitat destruction which are both to a large extent caused by pro fishermen. As it happens science would tend to agree with me.
I really don't see why pro fishing of all types, but particularly the more destructive practices like netting and long lining are allowed to continue given how effective and successful aquaculture is these days, certainly at the very least it needs to be a much more effectively policed and regulated industry.
Over the years I've personally witnessed pro fishermen rape and pillage breeding congregations of fish, flooding the market and causing the price of fish to bottom right out, their solution? Catch more fish! Yet when the fishing gets tough they never for a second consider, at least out loud, that they might be part of the problem. There is no way I'm taking the word of pros about anything related to fish stocks.
Net boats regularly haul seagrass beds along our gulf shallows decimating stocks, destroying habitat and helping to clog the place up with rafts of seagrass. I watched in early November last year as 3 boats were running back and forth between Pt Wakefield and just north of Ardrossan all day, god knows how many tons of YFW, mullet and tommies they smashed, not to mention all the bycatch, mainly juveniles of various species, chucked back dead they were responsible for on that day alone and I'm pretty sure I can tell you what caused the enormous blanket of weed that pushed up the gulf with the tide..... not seals.
I'm sorry if this offends in anyway, that is truly not my intention, but to blame depleted fish stocks on a still recovering population of seals which nearly went extint due to "pro" sealers is at best misinformed and ludicrous, at worst it is downright dangerous. We only need to look to the USA to see where misinformation being treated as fact can lead, certainly not better fish stocks that's for sure.
Finally please note I am certainly not one of these aforementioned greenies, I do reckon seals are kind of cool but I do not disagree with taking sensible population regulation measures if scientifically supported, trust in science and observation, not anecdotal opinions from people with a vested interest.
