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Grey Seal picture from
Northumberland County Council
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MISSION
The Grey Seal Conservation Society (GCSC) is a non-profit organization,
formed in April, 2004, to oppose the proposed new grey seal hunt in
Nova
Scotia, Canada. Given the complexity of the current mounting problems with
sea life - from starving codfish to oxygen-depleted "dead zones" - removing
more seals at this time appears not to be a prudent decision. Federal
legislation dictates that a "precautionary approach" be taken to the
exploitation of natural resources in Canada. Before this can be done,
Canada's "seal problem" in the 21st century deserves to be reviewed in
objective detail to understand exactly how seals relate to the "starving fish
problem," the "declining zooplankton problem," and the "oxygen depletion of
seawater" problem. Evidence that the presence of seals naturally tends to
counteract each of these broad-scale rising threats to marine life is
offered here. GSCS invites debate on these points.
GSCS hopes that the fishing industry, marine scientists, and the general
public, will seriously consider the many facets of today's ocean "problems"
and will openly contemplate the complex ecology of seals. The GSCS hopes to
counteract a traditional, short-sighted human thinking habit: jumping to the
conclusion that since seals eat fish, and since they spread codworms, that
seals are a form of vermin that must be removed or "controlled" for the
benefit of fisheries. This is not true, because there is substantially more
to the story. Marine fish face far more serious threats today than simple
co-existence with their natural predators...an arrangement under which they
thrived for hundreds of millions of years, and an arrangement which seems to have
naturally optimized both fish health and ocean health.
Federal law obliges Canadians to "err on the
side of caution" in deciding whether or not to implement an activity such as
the proposed grey seal hunt. Promoting this objective - refraining from
killing grey seals while their holistic relationship to ocean health remains
unknown - is the mandate of the Grey Seal Conservation Society.
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