Illegal shooting of seals

[twinkle]

this is from the seal santuary

Coast users will be familiar with seals and as a general rule they are shy
of humans, boats, jet skis etc. However,we have noticed a greater interaction
between seals and humans in recent years in more populated areas. To our knowledge
these interactions are purely of a friendly and curious nature.

back to 2009 http://www.sea-angling-ireland.org/bull ... 12&t=23264 and darol i dont condone the suffering of any creature.if this was done professionaly there would be no reason for anyone to take the law into there own hands. does anyone know when the last seal cenus was done ?cant seem to find anything since the early 90 s

[hugo]

I wouldnt presume it has to be anglers involved in this. IMO its more likely to be somebody with a net out for whatever. Back in the days of the salmon drifting, I often saw nets hauled where nearly every fish had a seal bite out of the back of the head (the best oils are in the brain apparently) and some boats carried a rifle to take potshots at the offenders. Also who could hit a dolphin in motion? Must've been tangled in a net.

[nicefish]

Find a way to get the seals to leave....

Your suggestions please!

Yappo

i dont want them to leave they need to be culled, all they would do is move in somewhere else and become someone elses nuisance.have any of you seen kilmicheal point?lately. its a joke with the locals they call it seal town.i asked one man whos lived there all his life has it ever been like that. he told me he had never seen so many seals in his life.this has to have a big impact on fish stocks in these areas and in turn a big impact on anglers returning to fish here each summer.i know a lot of british tourist visit kilmicheal to lure fish for Bass .we dont even have a regular supply of killer whales. that could trim down the seal numbers. so as we are the only predators these seals have, i think its our duty to act and cull them .with the population the way it is now it wont be long before a kayak or small punt will be attacked and someone will lose there life.
i also find it strange that on our water ways we cull lots of different species for different reasons.but iv yet to find a group representing the common water rat now there furry and some of us have them as pets. but we shoot them with out a sound from opposition.we set traps and poison them .all in there little homes and we are just the visitors to there habitat.we put slug killers and insecticide out in our gardens when we have an abundance of anything. and kill them.so why should it be any different for seals.a nation wide cull and see can we sell it to iceland.might bring in a few bob to the coffers.

Was planning a trip in the summer to Kilmichael for some lure fishing, don't think I'll bother now after reading this.

[twinkle]

heres apicture taken in wexford last week .so its not just howth

[chilly123]

Witch area of wexford is that.

[twinkle]

thats a picture of a small part of 1 of the saltee islands,i took it from a report section on another angling site. but thats just a strip of a couple of hundred yards. both islands are covered in seals not to mention on the mainland and harbour.you wont see this sight unless your in a boat .its mostly boaters will witness the amount there is .as we move around a lot

[nicefish]

thats a picture of a small part of 1 of the saltee islands,i took it from a report section on another angling site. but thats just a strip of a couple of hundred yards. both islands are covered in seals not to mention on the mainland and harbour.you wont see this sight unless your in a boat .its mostly boaters will witness the amount there is .as we move around a lot

Do seals feed in Darkness?

[twinkle]

thats a picture of a small part of 1 of the saltee islands,i took it from a report section on another angling site. but thats just a strip of a couple of hundred yards. both islands are covered in seals not to mention on the mainland and harbour.you wont see this sight unless your in a boat .its mostly boaters will witness the amount there is .as we move around a lot

Do seals feed in Darkness?

http://library.thinkquest.org/J003337/largecreatures/seals.htm
yes they do. heres a few facts on the seal

[twinkle]

i knew it was not an isolated incident http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfImv3KDgH4 not so cuddily here are they

[twinkle]

and the iceing on the cake http://www.komonews.com/news/local/56845352.html you should note the contradiction of experts. seals used to human contact will jump up and bite

[Davebouy]

Thanks for the info Twinkle. I think that explains why I nearly lost my hand while fishing round the back of Irelands Eye last year. A cull seem's the only solution in areas where there is a over population of seals as moving them on ( which I don't think is possible ) is just moving the problem onto someone else's patch.
I phoned my cousin in Wexford yesterday and asked him about Kilmichael Point. He told me not to bother anytime soon as the place is over run with seals. He has lived there all his life and said he has never seen so many in all the years he is walking that particular piece of coastline.
That puts paid to a planned trip for next weekend.

[nicefish]

thats a picture of a small part of 1 of the saltee islands,i took it from a report section on another angling site. but thats just a strip of a couple of hundred yards. both islands are covered in seals not to mention on the mainland and harbour.you wont see this sight unless your in a boat .its mostly boaters will witness the amount there is .as we move around a lot

Do seals feed in Darkness?

http://library.thinkquest.org/J003337/largecreatures/seals.htm
yes they do. heres a few facts on the seal

Thanks for that. I wont be going on any all-nighters this summer in Howth i will stay at home and watch andre the movie.

[twinkle]

its weird and i mean really weird the back of the island at night. you can hear every grunt and growl of the seals and birds .and the odd roar.you sort of drift off into your own little dream like state and then jump"jayus what was that"PS THE SIHTS UP YA i normally fish about 300 TO 400 yards off the back and anchor up for the night or tie up to the witches hat bouy. had pollock, small codling ,and huss but that was 2 seasons ago.

[Donnyboy1]

Feck sake lads... they are seals not mutant dinosaurs!!
They will not devop evil plans to take over the world and they will not plot to get you while you sleep...

They are wild animals living a normal life in the wild. Leave them alone and they will leave you alone. they are not malicious and they will not attack unless provoked (and just being there can be considered provocation to a wild animal).

If you enter their territory... its you responsibility for anything that will happen to you not them. You are a concious sentient being, not them.

Some of this talk is crazy...

Do you ever remember as a kid walking passed a field with a bull in it.
You're perfectly safe as long as you don't hop into the field with it... making loads of noise as you zip around it on with a noisy engine and catching food and waving it in front of them.....

Have repect for the wild, not a lovey dovey respect because they are furry lovable animals but healthy cautious respect because they are "wild".

Twinkle, it sounds really nasty what happened to you and your kid... but how evactly did it happen? I presume you were stationary (although thoughts of a seal breaching at 20knotts is a funny thought allright )? Did he try to follow a fish on board? Or was he just playing near the baot?
I dive myself from boats and I know just how hard it is to clamber back in over the gunnels... donno how a seal could have done it???

[twinkle]

we were fishing at the back of the island and a huge bull surfaced and started swimming about 4 ft from the boat pulled the rods in just incase we were looking at it. it was just sitting there waiting for something to be thrown to it. i took my phone to get a picture and it attacked leapt and bounced off the rails the whole boat shifted to one side my little fella was thrown against the rails got 1 picture just as he leapt. scared the life out of both of us.i was in the post above showing nicefish how errie irelands eye is at night im not trying to create monsters or dinosaurs but its certainly different at night .i suppose been the only boat out there in the pitch dark and the different noises intermittingly comming at you the imagination runs away with you

[Donnyboy1]

Great pic tho!

Thats pretty damn close!! I suppose maybe he thought the camera was fish or something????

I'd love to try a night time boat session... and I'd imagine its pretty spooky out there in the dark!

[twinkle]

i dont doubt that for a minute donnyboy.it saw something shiney in my hands and leapt for it.still deadly dangerous could have been achild with a shiney anything in its hand. i then a few days later seen the charter boat put a show on for the tourists were he dangles a mack at the side of the boat and gets the seal to breach out of the water.so the seals cant really be blamed but the humans who hand rear them and feed them can.the bottom line is there are way to many seals there not been allowed die naturally.so the population has boomed howth is stuffed to the gills with them and something has to give

[pete]

To be honest i like seals and seeing them out on a day at the shore is part of the whole experience of being at the sea. But i do have an issue with not letting nature take it's own course too. Keeping 100 seals alive in a tent in order to release again is a step too far as they should have been allowed to die as a result of the storm. See link below.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16533039

[samo]

Shooting seals and saving seals is basically the same thing "humans playing god". nature should be left to find its own balance.

[Tanglerat]

Seals? Awww, seals are lovely.