Seals freind or foe

[five bellies]

I thought shooting of seals could only be done under Licence in the UK,

If not the 1981 wildlife act applies,Please feel free to chalange this as I am certainly no lawyer,To add to this I thought this only applied to Salmon Farmers not Salmon netters,

 

.243 isnt a big enough Caliber.

 

The licence allowing shooting speciefies a large caliber Rifle.

 

I personaly cant see the piont in shooting them and disagree with it I fall well and truely in line with Steve C they belong in the system leave them Alone!

 

The number may well indicate a healthy head of fish in your locality I know of Anglers on this site that would look out for them as a sign of a productive area to fish in, as they wont be where the fish Aint

 

As the antis eye swings in our Direction I dont belive It is in our interest

to be seen to be moaning about To much wildlife.......................CORMARANTS Though!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Guest challenge]

Andy old mate.

We have a wreck that we visit that is about 70 miles to the nearest land. Every time we have visited it in the last four years the same seal has been there. We never catch any fish on it but the seal come up regularly with a fine codling in mouth. How does it find the wreck? Why does it just go to that wreck? We haven’t seen any seals on wrecks in the same area.

I think that john has said he has given up on it and we will be leaving it for the seal from now on.

[glennk]

Seals supposedly swim from Norway to here and back again which was how the last outbreak of distemper was spread.

[darlick]

I thought shooting of seals could only be done under Licence in the UK,

If not the 1981 wildlife act applies,Please feel free to chalange this as I am certainly no lawyer,To add to this I thought this only applied to Salmon Farmers not Salmon netters,

 

.243 isnt a big enough Caliber.

 

The licence allowing shooting speciefies a large caliber Rifle.

 

I personaly cant see the piont in shooting them and disagree with it I fall well and truely in line with Steve C they belong in the system leave them Alone!

 

The number may well indicate a healthy head of fish in your locality I know of Anglers on this site that would look out for them as a sign of a productive area to fish in, as they wont be where the fish Aint

 

As the antis eye swings in our Direction I dont belive It is in our interest

to be seen to be moaning about To much wildlife.......................CORMARANTS Though!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i have fished within fifty yards of them and had good fishing nice pollock and cod.dont realy have a problem with them it is a bit anoying when you go to pick up your nets and lines and the big black head pops up and half yor catch is chewed up i suppose its a bit like the chicken farmer and the fox you hand them a meal on a plate they will take it .its right what glenk says about them takeing fish off and storeing them up for later we have had one seal working a line takeing every fish off as it comes up and when all the line is in start to feed easy meal. i have a gun but could not shoot one never even taken it to sea its nice to see them i take my kids out to watch them the smiles on there face is worth more than a few fish

[darlick]

Andy old mate.

We have a wreck that we visit that is about 70 miles to the nearest land. Every time we have visited it in the last four years the same seal has been there. We never catch any fish on it but the seal come up regularly with a fine codling in mouth. How does it find the wreck? Why does it just go to that wreck? We haven’t seen any seals on wrecks in the same area.

I think that john has said he has given up on it and we will be leaving it for the seal from now on.

John mate i was there with you one time he was a big bugger, hows things going must have a go with you before end of season out for a beer later if you fancy paul hegs over for day or two

[lazy hooker]

I cant see that much of a problem with them

 

just got to teach them to eat dogfish though!!!!

 

john

[Gopherboy]

I live on the South West coast of England, (Torbay) I can understand your average commercial chap taking offense to the presence of a seal (one guy was taken to court for shooting a seal in the bay)

 

We dont get many of them, I have only ever seen one at a time near to the Torquay harbour. But its amazing how stupidly many anglers react to a single seal doing its thing, you'd think the seal had the plague or something...

 

As someone said earlier, they have more right to any fish than we do, they have to work hard for their food and survival, we fish for a hobby. You ought to congratulate any seal for figuring out the easy meal option, why should it it expend energy hunting when there are freebies to be had.

 

As for shooting them, do we want to get like the europeans who shoot anything n everything with a pulse (especially birds) just because we can or it MIGHT present a bit of competiton, and end up with lifeless enviroments.

 

Yes, sure, scare them away from your gear (harmlessly) its for there own safety as much as anything, but we really ought to look on it as a good thing that they are around, they do have a purpose in nature (as does everything) and just learn to accept them.

 

If your gonna have to shoot something, shoot the idiots on jetski's

[Guest challenge]

i have fished within fifty yards of them and had good fishing nice pollock and cod.dont realy have a problem with them it is a bit anoying when you go to pick up your nets and lines and the big black head pops up and half yor catch is chewed up i suppose its a bit like the chicken farmer and the fox you hand them a meal on a plate they will take it .its right what glenk says about them takeing fish off and storeing them up for later we have had one seal working a line takeing every fish off as it comes up and when all the line is in start to feed easy meal. i have a gun but could not shoot one never even taken it to sea its nice to see them i take my kids out to watch them the smiles on there face is worth more than a few fish

That’s what I thought you might say.

Putting things in perspective regardless of the cost helps.

Your kids have got a lot to be grateful for. Well said Andy.

By the way who was that big ugly bloke round at your house today with his new waders on? Is he what you are now using to frighten the seals away? He certainly frightened me.

Tight lines or should I say slack (scary) lines.

[big_cod]

Seals can be a massive problem at times with anglers i myself have steamed 20 miles to wreck when you get there up pop 2 seals they have fantastic sonars right on the end of there whiskers which pick activity for great distances ie finding wrecks in the middle of nowhere which have fish swarming round them.

But the main problem seems to be through the winter months when they seem to cause us the most problems most inshore wrecks through winter have seals never to far away and some days they can torture you taking many fish of the anglers the lads at first say oh there is a seal at the back of the boat isnt it lovely 30 minuites later they want to shoot it.

Edited August 30, 2006 by big_cod

[Guest challenge]

Again here is an example of a very close regional difference. Big cod fishing inside ground and wrecks and saying there is a massive problem with seals at times, and glenk who at times is only fishing a matter of a few thousand yards away saying he has not experienced any problems with seals.

I personally believe that the seal population on the north east coast is a contributory factor to the lack of large amounts of codling on inshore grounds.

I also believe that commercial fishermen caught there fair share when I was at it.

If the seal population in our part of the world had disappeared as much as the commercial numbers had, would they still be a problem? Friend or foe? For the sake of darlicks kids I think we should give them a wide birth.