Animal Advocates Watchdog

Don't Feed Flipper *PIC*

Don't Feed Flipper: New rules designed to protect the unwary from angry, dependent seals

Louise Dickson
Times Colonist
Sunday, April 10, 2005

Don't give in to those big brown wet-lashed eyes pleading with you for a little food.

The roly-poly seals swimming by the dock near the fish-cleaning table at the Oak Bay Marina should be foraging for their own food.

"Feeding seals is common practice," said Fisheries officer Larry Paike. "But feeding bears in Jasper Park was acceptable in the 1960s. The seals are cute and cuddly and you forget they're wild animals. We're trying to train the public, that left to their own devices, they'll seek their own food sources."

Fisheries officers have begun educating marina operators about the proposed changes to the marine mammal regulations of the Fisheries Act which say no one should feed, touch, swim or interact with marine mammals. The proposed changes are the result of Canada-wide consultations by Fisheries and Oceans which took place in 2003-2004 with the public, First Nations, scientists and eco-tourism operators.

"We'll start with commercial operators who are in contact with the public on a daily basis to outline our concerns and ask for their help in not actively promoting the feeding of marine mammals," said Paike.

Feeding seals makes them dependent, he said. It takes away their wildness and it can also make them more aggressive.

"When food isn't readily available, they come out of the water and bite people. And they have an incredible bite," said the fisheries officer. "The canines on them are big enough to inflict a serious wound, which can become infected."

People feed the seals at marinas where there are fish-cleaning tables, said Paike. Seals get used to boats coming in and wait for the entrails to be flung into the water.

But the practice was actively promoted at the Oak Bay Marina, which has been selling little packets of herring as "seal food."

After an officer visited the Oak Bay Marina last Tuesday, the "Seal Food" sign was taken off the herring-filled freezer in the gift shop.

During the past two weeks, hundreds of people flocked to the marina after a Times Colonist feature suggested feeding the seals as a March break activity. One fuel attendant, who didn't want his name published, said he spent the whole March break cutting up seal food.

The fuel attendant thinks there should be a regulation prohibiting "stupid humans" from hand-feeding the seals.

"They also like to put food on the rails and watch the seals come up and take it off the rails. But if they get a tooth caught or chipped or broken, it's pretty much a death sentence for them."

People get bitten by the seals at the marina two or three times a year, he said. Two weeks ago, a woman was standing on the dock with a piece of herring in her glove. A seal popped out of the water, grabbed the herring and took her glove with it.

The proposed regulations are not yet law, but if people persist in feeding the seals, officers will enforce the offence under the existing regulations, which states no one shall disturb marine mammals, said Paike.

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Don't Feed Flipper *PIC*
It's also meant to avert your attention away from the massacre
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