Pilot Study on Seal Predation

jkchambers

Link - Full report can be downloaded via a link on the bottom of the link page
http://www.fisheriesireland.ie/Notices/a-pilot-study-of-seal-predation-on-salmon-stocks-in-selected-irish-rivers-and-estuaries.html

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

At last a report that shows anglers take a lot more fish than seals. At least it's nature for the seal and a must for survival. Live and let live.

Mr Bumble

In two rivers!!!
Sit for a day on the rocks above the sea pool in Waterville and watch the dozen or so resident and very fat seals hoover up fish and you might imagine a different set of findings.....each river is an individual ecosystem with different dynamics. Both the Moy and the Slaney have big, open estuaries..........smaller rivers more vunerable.

popsy09

Have to agree with the above poster I have seen it myself in Waterville can be quite spectacular at times

dazza161989

People need to stop worrying about seal predation and start worrying about poaching, netting, offshore driftnetting and pollution.......the seals were always here , if anything there's less now than when our rivers were full of salmon.

floattuber_lee

seriously you think seals are the biggest problem? what seals take in a year is a drop in the ocean compared to netting, pollution, sea lice from farms, poaching, rod anglers and damage to habitat.

coolhandspan

Totlly agree with above comment, seals, otters, kingfishers, salmon all native species. all entitled to live here wild and free from persecution. Invasive species mink, curly pondweed etc along with pollution need to be eradicated.

Never understand anglers blaming seals, just daft.

J. Ramone

Luciano Fancy Snorkel wrote: »

At last a report that shows anglers take a lot more fish than seals. At least it's nature for the seal and a must for survival. Live and let live.

I've deducted otherwise. The report would point to the likelihood that more salmonids are being consumed by seals in Wexford harbour than are running the Slaney.

14% of fish mass x mass of fish consumed per seal per day x number of seals in Wexford Harbour / average weight of salmonid = number of salmonids consumed by seals per day.

The number of salmon entering the Slaney has been critically low for at least 20 years. The sea trout run is now in very serious decline on the Slaney, you could say it has crashed in the past two years.

dodderangler

Only beef I've had with seals was mackerel season and the fcukers robbing me mackerel and have snapped me line aswell but as it was said commercial fishing, anglers pollutin etc are doing a hell of a lot more damage

coolhandspan

I value all opinions on here, but seals are a native irish species, it's not their fault they need to rely on salmon to survive. we can't just kill them off. that's crazy central. we need balanced eco systems. not extermination policies.
I'm not a tree hugger, I have shot many mink over years.
I'm interested in all views on here.

J. Ramone

Who suggested we kill them off?

wicorthered

Those pesky seals and their drift nets!! The cheek of seals to eat fish, they've only started doing that lately, they never ate fish before man decimated almost every fish species!!!

floattuber_lee

J. Ramone wrote: »

Who suggested we kill them off?

Good point. but they shouldnt even be looked at really in the greater scheme of things they are hardly a major contribution to the lowering salmon stocks.

mikeweed

We had a nasty incident down here in Dungarvan with seals being shot..... they had been coming into the estuary, lying up on the sand banks, they had been there all summer but one day the bodies were found all along the coast line shot and one was beheaded. I love fishing but not at the cost of another animal that is trying to survive, I thin close to 9 seals were killed.