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IWMC
World Conservation Trust |
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"Seal Wars"
Chapter 1:
Safe Sex for Seals
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Once upon a time when people were sensible and there
were no animal rights activists and environmentalists, problems with wildlife
were handled locally, quickly and efficiently. No one worried about it. Today,
when species get out of hand, everyone affected worries about it but no one can
dare to do anything, for fear that "they" will present it to the
media in such a way that elected officials will lose their jobs.
 In some parts of the
oceans, certain abundant whales are overfishing the marine ecosystem to the
detriment of fish stocks, sea birds, and human fishermen. And in Scotland,
fishermen know that the gray seals are eating their fish and worse, that the
seals carry the dreaded "seal worm", a parasite that infests fish
flesh to the extent that processing plants must spend thousands of pounds to
have workers remove the offending worms - sometimes there are so many that
fillets end up being flaked fish, which brings a much lower price than do
fillets.
Gray seals not only compete with fishermen for fish, but they diminish the
value of what humans do catch, and gray seals are increasing so rapidly on
Scotland's coasts, that they are expected to reach 200,000 animals within a
decade. But the British authorities dare not shoot the seals to control their
population. Why? one might ask. Because activists will go to the media and the
voters, aroused by activist claims of "inhumane, cruel, mindless
slaughter", will demand an alternative solution. After all, that is what
happened back in 1978 when the population of gray seals was "culled"
by hunters for the same reasons.
So in the year 2002, in order to solve the problem, British sharpshooters
are armed with dart guns that carry doses of a substance called an
immunocontraceptive virus, which is designed to cause female seals to fail to
ovulate for up to two years. 200 female gray seals are to be darted in a pilot
program that, it is hoped, will keep the herd from growing, and will keep
officials in office with their kind reputations intact. Of course, this will
not solve the sealworm problem, nor will it be a permanent solution.
Remember the old joke about the same controversy in the American West? The
rancher who wanted the government agents to shoot marauding coyotes was trying
to explain to an environmentalist at a public meeting, why this was the
preferred method. She wanted the animals to be sterilized instead of shot.
"Ma'am, he politely explained, they're not …..ing my sheep, they're
eating them." Scotland's fishermen probably feel the same way about their
fish and their gray seals. But the seals won't care. To them, it's going to be
just one big, endless party of seals coming into estrus, bull seals pursuing
them, and no pups to care for, while they all chow down as usual. Party on,
seal lovers.
Once again, this is not about the animals in question. For both activists
and government decision makers, it is about power - getting it, keeping it,
exerting it, losing it, protecting it, and worrying about all the above. The
fishermen lose, and so does the trusting public, in this endless process of
green activism working in ways that ironically, harm both the environment and
the people who depend upon it. 
(Source: Hunters aim to put seals on the pill. Jeremy Watson.
31 March 2002 - Scotland on Sunday development.)
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