Seals

[PaddyB]

I was out around Inistrahull Island yesterday, and could not beleive the amount of Seals. It was like plague proportions, has it always been like this, or is the number of Seals around the country growing? We fished a few wrecks out past Inistrahull, where the fishing was excellent, and we stopped in around the Island to target Wrasse on the way back in. I think there was two fish caught over about 6 or 7 drifts, to be honest I was surprised that the was any fish there at all with all those seal, never seen anything like it!

[eric]

same around dublin, they're like rats

[oneillphil]

sure everytime one gets sick or looks like its in trouble and would have died, part of natural
selection etc they bring it to a hospital nurse it back and then release it later.
does anyone else think they should let nature take its course, as it not like there is a shortage
of them.

[youngrod]

sure everytime one gets sick or looks like its in trouble and would have died, part of natural
selection etc they bring it to a hospital nurse it back and then release it later.
does anyone else think they should let nature take its course, as it not like there is a shortage
of them.

ya does anyone know if seals are protected

[slowarm]

Seals are protected under some act or other. They were nearly wiped out some years back when there were regular culls of seals by fishermen (back in the days when fish were relatively plentiful - but commerical fishermen still wanted more). I don't suppose people are calling for the re-introduction of culling, are they?

[doggie3131]

watched a seal from a high point in old head on sat,saw him take three fish (i think pollock) one big one in ten minutes,and they are all over the place in the bay,personally i think the time has come for a cull!there numbers are huge down here,ive heard there are 150 plus on the moy estuary!!

[fergal]

loads of seals are the sign of a healthy fishery.

[eric]

loads of seals are the sign of a healthy fishery.

tell the fish

[captain AHAB]

seals are culled anually,albeit in a very small way, off the south coast.apparently the greedy lumps each need approx. 80kg food daily.

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[slowarm]

watched a seal from a high point in old head on sat,saw him take three fish (i think pollock) one big one in ten minutes,and they are all over the place in the bay,personally i think the time has come for a cull!there numbers are huge down here,ive heard there are 150 plus on the moy estuary!!

seals are culled anually,albeit in a very small way, off the south coast.apparently the greedy lumps each need approx. 80kg food daily.

If there are large numbers of seals then there is enough fish there to feed them. I think killing animals for the sake of killing animals is blatant savagery at it's worse. They have a right to exist, the same right that we have to exist and the same right that the fish, which both us and the seals chase, have to exist. Remember, seals catch fish for food and to survive. Many of us fish for sport. It could well be argued that we are in the wrong.

And I don't see how an animal eating what it needs to survive make it a greedy lump. Most, if not all animals eat what they need and then stop. Outside of mankind, obesity is not, as far as I am aware, a disease of the animal world.

[shamoo0804]

Have to say I'm with slowarm on this one.

[corbyeire]

ditto with shamoo and slowarm here

my best session on lures for bass was when there were 5 seals within casting distance - follow what theyre at - you could learn a thing or 2

[doggie3131]

[/quote]

If there are large numbers of seals then there is enough fish there to feed them. I think killing animals for the sake of killing animals is blatant savagery at it's worse. They have a right to exist, the same right that we have to exist and the same right that the fish, which both us and the seals chase, have to exist. Remember, seals catch fish for food and to survive. Many of us fish for sport. It could well be argued that we are in the wrong.

And I don't see how an animal eating what it needs to survive make it a greedy lump. Most, if not all animals eat what they need and then stop. Outside of mankind, obesity is not, as far as I am aware, a disease of the animal world.[/quote]


Six miles downstream along one of Europe's most important salmon fishing rivers, cigar-smoking angler and fishing guide Patrick 'Pappy' Forde suddenly spots his enemy.

Casting his fly out into the estuary of the Moy on Ireland's western seaboard, Forde points towards a band of seals and seal pups gathering to bask in late August sunshine on a sandbank close to where the river flows into the Atlantic.

'Look at them bastards,' Forde says as he fishes for salmon and sea trout close to the ocean and to the right of an island owned by the golfing great Nick Faldo, who also fishes the Moy.

'If they keep breeding, there will be no more fish left in the Moy,' he adds. Anglers from both Co Mayo and across the world agree and want the Irish government to lift the ban on culling seals, which they claim is leading to the depletion of salmon stocks in the world-famous river.

The controversy in western Ireland is about what to do about one protected and now thriving species that threatens to destroy another.

Asked if he thinks the ban on culling should be lifted, Forde rocks back in his boat and replies: 'Oh my God, yes! And the sooner the better.'

Wading into the Moy, just 10ft from the seals, Forde says: 'I have seen the seals actually take salmon and sea trout from the fishing rods of anglers. They are now so brazen and unafraid of man that they go up to anglers to snatch fish.'

Even the statutory agency in charge of fishing in the region has come out in favor of reintroducing culling. Vincent Roche, the CEO of Ireland's North Western Regional Fisheries Board, estimates the seal population in the Moy to be between 140 and 200.

'It's a question of getting the species balance correct,' he says. 'When our government banned drift-netting off the coast, the fishermen pointed out that seals were eating as many salmon and other fish as they were taking out of the rivers and ocean with their nets.

'They and the anglers point out that the stocks are still being undermined by the seals and I have to say they have a real argument. There is only one solution to this problem, and that is a limited cull.'

think this says it all.

[oneillphil]

don't think we need a cull, but on the other hand i don't think we need to save every single one that gets into trouble

[eric]

don't think we need a cull, but on the other hand i don't think we need to save every single one that gets into trouble

bang on, i think as humans we can become to carring sometimes, we seem to forget that nature takes its course, when an animal is dying or washes up on a beach, we shouldnt feel obliged to save them, it happens, it has nothing to do with us. we seem to forget that extinction happens. thats going down a seperate tangent back to the point, the seals around our area have nothing to do with a healthy fishery, 90% of the food comes from lazing around the coal quay and bulloch waiting for the scraps from the fisherman, not forgeting the amount of idiots who insits of feeding the pests.

[dbrock]

the amount of seals around dalkey lately is ridiculous and the need to be culled if angling is to be of any sport there on more than 10 trips this year , they have taken 90 percent of the fish hooked, they have become lazy and to dependent on humans to feed them,,

and the amount of seals there in no way reflect on fish stocks, ive been fishing there over ten years and there are more and more seals every year and alot less fish,,

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[dunner]

dont kill the seals..... stop the trawlers from catching and then dumping fish....

[gfkelly1969]

dont kill the seals..... stop the trawlers from catching and then dumping fish....

don't think we need a cull, but on the other hand i don't think we need to save every single one that gets into trouble

bang on, i think as humans we can become to carring sometimes, we seem to forget that nature takes its course, when an animal is dying or washes up on a beach, we shouldnt feel obliged to save them, it happens, it has nothing to do with us. we seem to forget that extinction happens. thats going down a seperate tangent back to the point, the seals around our area have nothing to do with a healthy fishery, 90% of the food comes from lazing around the coal quay and bulloch waiting for the scraps from the fisherman, not forgeting the amount of idiots who insits of feeding the pests.

loads of seals are the sign of a healthy fishery.

a lot of good points here
if you take one part of the food chain out it can lead to problems in another later,the seals probably eat a lot of the weaker or sick fish this leading to a lot more healthy fish

stop the trawlers from catching and then dumping fish,this dose more damage then a few seals

if a seal washes up on a beach let nature takes its course

80kg food daily that's about 200 mackerel,a mackerel basher could catch that amount in one session,dose that mean we should cull a few mackerel bashers as well

[rustyhookthomas]

gfkelly1969 "if a seal washes up on a beach let nature takes its course"

even in hospitals you will see N.F.R. on some patient charts!

[shamoo0804]

the amount of seals around dalkey lately is ridiculous

With fishing like you had the other day, you shouldnt be too fussed about fishing around dalkey anytime soon