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It’s partly out of concern for the latter sparking recent calls for a cull of harbour seals, with those in favour citing a recent explosion in the seal population as principal cause of the decline of Chinook salmon. “Explosion?” Yikes. This is serious, and we had better respond. But, hold on a minute — there has been virtually no change in seal numbers in B.C. in more than 20 years. But for the whales — which face additional threats that include vessel strikes, pollution, underwater noise, and a shrinking gene pool — the problem is, as usual, us humans.

It was also people who almost eliminated harbour seals from B.C. in the 20th century. From 1879-1968, an estimated half a million seals were killed in B.C. for the commercial fur trade and for predator control. Their numbers plummeted to fewer than 10,000 in the 1960s; less than one-tenth of their pre-exploitation numbers. They did have an impressive recovery in the two decades following, increasing exponentially during the ’70s and ’80s, beginning to slow in the 1990s, and have been relatively stable — at about 110,000 animals — in the two decades since. The so-called “explosion” was a conservation success story that took place largely in the 1970s and 1980s, pretty old numbers to cite in today’s news.

With a successful recovery of harbour seals, more interactions with fisheries come naturally compared to several decades ago. Harbour seals are opportunistic predators that feed on bite-sized prey that are abundant or accessible. They take advantage of an easy meal, sometimes targeting those same fish that we value: juvenile salmon heading to out to sea, or adult salmon incapacitated on fishing lines. A healthy population of seals and fewer salmon inevitably leads to more noticeable interactions, including quick-learning “nuisance animals” that quite understandably draw the ire of some anglers and fisheries managers. Calls for action come quickly, and seals are an easy target.