Submission 0163-PRRC_556017

Submitter: Puntledge River Restoration Committee

Community: Comox

Date Submitted: August 28, 2023

Summary:
The attached letter from the Puntledge River Restoration Committee outlines how seals have affected salmon stocks in the Puntledge River and suggests that seals may be a cause of the decline of Fraser sockeye. The letter calls on DFO to cull or remove seals to prevent further declines.

Submission:
The Puntledge River Restoration Committee is a government/ private organization which has been concerned with the effect of seal predation on salmon stocks for many years, in the Puntledge River specifically but in Georgia Strait in general. The Committee has written letters of protest to the various Ministers and Prime Ministers over the years calling for action, but has had very little or no response. We see a cull or removal of seals as absolutely necessary. The Environmental Council has also written similarly, and also the B.C. Wildlife Federation. Recently our local newspaper ran a poll which got a heavy voter response and came out with a result of 93% calling for a seal cull. By way of submission, I send by attachment below a copy of my recent letter to Prime Minister Harper which is mostly about the Puntledge and DFO, , but which I think also is relevant to the sockeye. Roy Fussell, Chair, Puntledge River Restoration Committee.

Submission Files:

File 1:

PRRC Letter to Harper (2).pdf

Comment List

Name: Dr. Roland Alcock

Date Created: September 7, 2023

Comment:
It is surprising that even today, in the 21st century, predators are blamed for the decline in a prey species that we ourselves have targeted. Seals have lived for thousands of years in equilibrium and harmony with fish stocks, both on the West and East coasts. Yet just as on the East coast, when the seals were blamed for the loss of the greatest cod fishery in the world, they are now being blamed on the West coast too, as though somehow nature and the systems its regulates have suddenly gone awry! The causes of a species loss are always the same and nothing to do with natural system malfunctions. The cause is overharvesting and habitat destruction, and the origin always the same. People and their environmentally destructive practices and activities!!