Puntledge seal cull requested to preserve salmon

Seals are cute, unless you’re a salmon smolt trying to escape to the ocean or returning as an adult to spawn up the Puntledge and other Island rivers. A report this week indicates the seal population has exploded in Georgia Strait. file pHOTO

By Colleen Dane
Record Staff
Mar 28 2007

Killing seals in the Puntledge River is an ugly idea, but a necessary one, say groups trying to recover salmon stocks being decimated by the hungry and opportunistic mammals.

“Yes, it’s not good — yes, it’s not politically correct — but it’s important,” said Larry Peterson, a chair of the Puntledge River Restoration Committee, who is also a director on the Comox Valley Environmental Council.

News of a potential seal cull in the river hit headlines across B.C. earlier this week as a report was presented showing a huge increase in the population of the animals. Members of the various local groups came out with their request for a cull, to protect specifically the spring chinook that are being snacked on both on their way out to sea as smolt, and on their way in as adults, females often carrying roe with thousands more fish.

“In the spring it has a terrible impact,” said Peterson about the seals. “They’ll take 30 per cent of the summer chinook — and that’s an endangered species.”

It’s a sight that’s terribly disappointing for those trying to regenerate the fish populations — looking under the lights of the Fifth or 17th street bridges, or those from the tennis courts of Lewis Park and watching the seals line up for their meals.

“It’s a real conflict,” said Peterson. “Unfortunately, we control the balance, and it’s getting out of balance.”

Consultation has already started, and has included various environmental groups, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the local First Nations and others.

This isn’t the first time that a seal cull has been debated in the Comox Valley.

About 10 years ago, roughly 60 seals were eliminated from the Puntledge River after government and local groups had tried numerous other determents. They tried building a fence, which the seals got through. They relocated some of the seals to the west coast of Vancouver Island, but they returned within a few days, said Peterson.

This cull they’re calling for, he said, is about getting the number of seals back in line — and then implementing a predator plan for the river — tentatively including strategies like changing the lights that help night hunting for the seals, or looking at sound deterrents.

While it’s not official yet, Peterson said the discussions they’ve had tentatively looked at April or May as the time to cull around 50 seals this year. In the most recent count, it’s estimated there are 52,000 harbour seals in the Georgia Strait.

reporter@comoxvalleyrecord.com