The Australian and New Zealand fur seals have been protected since the late 1920’s when their populations were severely decimated to levels reported to be around 25,000 animals. The Australian fur seal today principally inhabits Victorian, Bass Strait and northern Tasmanian waters whilst the New Zealand fur seal inhabits South Australian waters stretching around to Western Australia. There are presently 90,000 Australian fur seals and around 70,000 New Zealand fur seals, so neither are threatened or endangered by global standards. As a former commercial fisher, (deckie), I was amazed at the number of seals and the interruption they would cause commercial fishers. The old skipper for whom I worked had a severe dislike for seals and ‘wished’ many to God for the sake of harvesting a reasonable catch; whether long-ling in coastal and Commonwealth waters, bay and inlet netting for bait fish or just angling for King George whiting. “Sammy the seal” was always about for he had learned well to target fishers, an easy take and a great source of amusement to occupy his time as he pulled fish from nets, frolicked with them until bored before more and more fish were removed. Similarly when angling. When a seal moved in on a patch of fish, you might as well pull the pick and go home!

     With this in mind I decided to investigate the harvesting of seals for I was aware that many were reported to be despatched during the late 1980’s and Victorian Bay and Inlet fishermen could address seals interfering with their gear with the use of a firearms. They could be legally shot! Additionally, a high profile recreational angling writer from Geelong, Victoria, (formerly a Fisheries Officer), also informed me that during that period he could attend beached seals tormenting anglers at boat ramps and ‘put them down’. Today the seal, despite its large population, is protected by various state legislation and the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act of 1999. What a pity they didn’t put commercial fishers on the same protected list!

     After attending the Southern Hemisphere Marine Mammal Conference, (SHMMC), in May of 2001 I began to confirm what many of my commercial fishing friends had told me, “seals were out of control and fish stocks can not handle their pressure”. This was confirmed by the data collected by one of Australia’s leading marine mammal specialists, Dr Simon Goldsworthy. He had delivered a monumental study on seals and their impacts upon fisheries with data so complete it was amazing. My suspicions and greatest fears were confirmed; seals consumed 448,000 tonnes of fish stocks annually in Australia’s southern ocean. This was 2 ½ times the amount of fish harvested annually for he whole of Australia! From any perspective, this was obviously unsustainable.

     Fortunately, at the same time of the conference, the Victorian Parliament was undertaking an Inquiry into the Management of Fisheries. As a concerned stakeholder I gave my evidence under oath regarding seals and I can still remember the sniggering by politicians on the Environment and Natural Resources Committee that occurred when I presented Goldsworthy’s data on fish take by seals and that how this was ‘unsustainable’ by any account. The sniggers disappeared with the publishing of the Parliamentary committee’s final report in 2002; all of my evidence on seals was published. Yes! We have a problem, chairman of the ENRC, Hon Gorge Seitz intimated when I approached him informally at parliament house. But would the politicians do anything about it?

     Being a Labor government, I suppose the government just glossed over what they didn’t want to accept, (smacking of “Yes Minster”). This sent me on a mission to find out what can be done with seals and how are they harvested. I found myself in Nelson, New Zealand for a World Council of Whalers conference – many whalers are also sealers! I had struck ‘gold’ for the information I gathered was brilliant. The Canadians had been working on seal products for 40 years and had complete utilisation: www.sealers.nf.ca. A video tape that I procured from the Canadian sealers Association showed excellent resource use and documents that I had forwarded from Canada showed the need for harvesting, to protect cod stocks that had been originally depleted from ‘over-fishing’ but had not been able to recover due to an increasing seal population. Armed with a need to harvest seals, (due to over predation of fish species), and a tape that demonstrated full utilisation I then began to lobby the Commonwealth government to consider harvesting seals. Senator Judith Troeth was my first ‘port of call’ and as luck would have it, she was conducting a fact finding mission in my local port, San Remo. I booked in for an appointment, (This was now June of 2003). As I explained my concerns, others in the room were looking for somewhere to hide – harvesting seals, unheard of in Australia, ‘it won’t happen’). At this meeting I was advised of a Fisheries Research and Development Corporation report that had been released detailing the impact of seals upon Australia’s fisheries. It was compiled by the leading CSIRO future’s “brains trust” in Australia and chaired by Professor Bob Kearney. There had been $400,000 spent and three years consumed to present what I had independently found myself – seals are threatening the sustainability of five fisheries and dare I add, with a high possibility of ecosystem collapse! Goldsworthy had supplied a figure of 300,000 tonnes per annum from his unpublished data – somewhat lower than the 448,000 tonnes at the SHMM Conference on Phillip Island two years previously? As a result of seal predation, five fisheries were predicted to “crash” and this was from well credentialed sources – Australia’s best researchers!

     Later in 2003 there was a “Marine Mammals, Fisheries Tourism and Management Issues” book published by the CSIRO. It was a compilation of the papers presented at the SHMM Conference and within the chapter featuring Goldsworthy’s major work was the figure 432,000 tonnes of fish per annum?? This was much closer to the original figure of 448,000 tonnes presented at the conference in 2001. So I ascertained if fisheries were on the verge of collapse with a figure of 300,000 tonnes, (as supplied to Kearney et al), how further down the track were we at 432,000 tonnes? I began to lobby harder and with Goldsworthy’s complete data set, I had all of the ammunition I needed. On page 84 of the book, data suggested that with a 10% increase in seal biomass; Dories would be depleted by - 38%, Other large fish by - 32%, Redbait by - 32% and Warehou by -31%. This was catastrophic for the marine ecosystem, both across with competing predators and for upper level predators. It was cited in this data set provided by Goldsworthy that a 10% increase or decrease in the fishing fleet had little to insignificant impact, except for Jackass morwong, -40% with a 10% increase in fishing effort.

     Consequently, as a result of the highly regarded work by Prof Kearney, a National Seal Strategy Group was established by AFFA that mostly consisted of government bureaucrats from relevant states – there was no industry representation. They were under the guidance of Dr Carolyn Stewardson, a South African, and once acquainted I began to forward research from Canada and the North Atlantic on seals, a geographic area where she had little knowledge. I was informed of a draft paper to be released at a later date, of which she would keep me informed. Guess what, the paper was released in October of 2005 and I was not informed. Fortunately a colleague in aquaculture picked up the report and sent it to me, I had three weeks to comment on a ‘white paper’ that had been out for nearly four months. Thankfully I had a favourable response from the AFFA representative who was the co-ordinator. An extension was granted and my comments submitted.

     During this period of time I have analysed the data of Goldsworthy and alongside the research that I had received from Canada and other north Atlantic countries I began to put a submission together for FRDC funding, including the Victorian FRAB. I was encouraged by Peter Dundas-Smith, a visionary and former FRDC head who intimated two important points to me;

     - I would rather see something done now than ten years later when it will be too late!
And
- that we will all be eating seals in ten years time and not think anything of it.

Great words from a man who commands my utmost of respect, a fellow visionary!

    The FRDC submission threw me into top mode and before long I had set up my company and brought people along at grass roots level with a mind to harvest seals. Another mate, a former commercial fisher of long-standing and now involved in processing and international trade had found markets and so he, too, was also brought on board. The potential export earn for seals is around $100 million on present day prices.

    I have developed a quota system whereby a licence would consist of 1,000 seals – 500 male and 500 female. The return to licence holders for their meat is presently around $10 per kilo. When one considers that I seek to harvest animals from 5 years and above, (these are the animals that take the most fish and additionally maintain significant weight for economic return), there should be no outcry that juvenile animals are being harvested! With the introduction of Viagra, the price of male seal penises went down but due to heart attacks, they have returned in price with licence holders to expect around $1,000 per bull seal penis. So this $500,000 return in penises coupled with around 100,000 kg of seal meat is a further $1,000,000. The pelts will probably return around $30 each and so that is another $30,000 to add to the total. The return for a seal licence on present day values is around $1.5 million.

    The Mean Sustainable Yield, (reproduction rate is 31,000 pups per year); less 5,000 for natural mortality would mean that there would be 26 licences spread along the southern coast line. The removal of the more mature animals by shooting is the preferred option from my perspective. I have investigated this with Norwegian veterinarians in their sealing industry. Harvesting at the MSY only maintains the population and therefore still places significant pressure upon fish stocks. If predation by seals is to be significantly reduced I would suggest a further harvest of an additional 3,000 Australian fur seals per annum over a 10 year period. This would bring the 90,000 population of Australian fur seals back to 60,000 and the New Zealand fur seal, (an introduced species competing with the Australian sea lions or an exotic), for mine, these could be removed completely – they are introduced and there are 2 million of them in New Zealand. If the harvesting regime to reduce Australian fur seals by the levels indicated was to be adopted by the Commonwealth government, around 108,000 tonnes of fish would remain in the ecosystem for the benefit of competing and upper level predators. If the introduced/exotic New Zealand fur seal was eliminated that would release around a further 200,000 tonne that would be similarly available. And the bottom line to all of this would be that hard working fishermen would not need to be bought-out by short-sighted politicians.

Conclusion

    So, in conclusion, we could be looking at an industry worth around $100 million in export returns for harvesting at the MSY. If we completely remove the New Zealand fur seal as an introduced species we could be looking at a further $22,500,000 and a huge release of fish take to maintain the marine ecosystem and prolong sustainable commercial fishing practises long into the future, without the humiliation and heartbreak of offering commercial operators pitiful re-establishment allowances and useless transitional assistance into other industries or, more likely, the dole queues! This ‘Recipe for Recovery’ cannot occur unless the commercial fishing industry combines as a strong front and lobbies the respective industry leaders and ministers. ASIC needs to be motivated more so to take on the concerns of commercial fishermen, the public needs to be educated of what is going on with voracious seals otherwise causing fisheries ‘crashes’ and with some great ‘cutting-edge’ leadership from agencies such as FRDC, AFMA and the Commonwealth Department of Environment and Heritage, Australia will not only have sustainable fisheries, despite MPAs, but additionally a healthy and well managed seal population. You can have both, but as I have said before, you have to have the ‘testicular endowment’ to tackle the hard issues and move forward. I see the fishing industry at the same place as the kangaroo industry 30 years ago. We can do it but as I spruiked at ASIC in Sydney last year, we need to be united and put pressure on the politicians whilst additionally educating the general public. This is your industry and if you want it to remain sustainable, this is my “Recipe for Recovery” and your future way forward!