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phenomena that affect them
Here in the Bras D'Or, when I was growing up there were no seals at
all. I remember one actually being caught(and drowned) in a herring
net, and it became a novelty, they being that rare. My father always
had a herring net for bait and longlines in the fall to catch cod that
he would salt for the winter. THERE WERE LOTS OF COD. There were huge
schools visible along the shores every fall. During this past summer's
"cod season", which runs the months of July and August, my neighbour
and I went fishing probably a dozen times, and came back with a total
of 16 cod all summer.. The daily limit was five per day per fisher,
so we came back empty-handed most days.
There are now lots of seals in the lake. We saw several each time we
went out. I don't know how much or what kind of fish they eat, or if
they are a factor in the cod decline, but putting two and two
together sometimes works. I'm sure there are other factors in play
here, although there hasn't been a commercial cod fishery in the Bras
D'Or for the past dozen years or so. But if a seal cull might work, I
can't see any harm in trying.
Billy
>
>
>
> From: John Sollows
>
>
>
> Date: Oct. 10/11
>
>
>
> The controversy over the proposed seal culls and whether or not they
> qualify
> as "research" takes me back to an earlier life in the field of "action
> research." The point behind such research, as I recall, was to answer
> questions with results that were immediately applicable. That
> necessitated
> doing research in the real world where the scientist had little or no
> control over conditions.
>
>
>
> Most of my work involved looking into the socio-economic viability/
> sustainability of various sorts of fish culture in poor countries. We
> worked with as many farmers/fishers as we could, left the management
> decisions to them, provided advice as needed and requested, monitored like
> hell, and analysed and interpreted the results. Our results wouldn't have
> made it into Nature or Science, but gave pretty convincing evidence of the
> widespread viability of the practice, and made some very important points
> about what sort of technology is (and isn't) appropriate for poor people.
> Consequently, policymakers in at least a couple of countries took, the
> practice seriously. It would be nice to know how many poor families
> became
> a little better off, as a result.
>
>
>
> I don't know much about the facts behind the seal controversy. Sounds as
> if
> different scientists have different opinions re. the effects of grey seals
> on cod stocks. I do know that "no evidence" of an effect usually means
> "we
> don't know," and "no significant effect" can mean "no effect" or simply
> that
> the experiment was not sensitive (expensive?) enough to detect one.
>
>
>
> Like farmers, fishers are taking in their circumstances and the natural
> phenomena that affect them more continuously than anyone else, and process
> the results in the computers between their ears. Yup, they can miss
> things
> and mis-process things (and so can scientists), but they have the most
> comprehensive knowledge of the resource on which they depend.
>
>
>
> My vibes tell me that if grey seals are booming, cod are declining, a lot
> of
> fishers are blaming the seals, and the seals are otherwise implicated in
> having a negative effect on the stocks, let the cull happen, argue about
> the
> level of culling, monitor the results closely, and be ready to make
> adjustments. It'll never be pure science, but sometimes, we have to make
> decisions with less information than we'd like to have.
>
>
>
> Afterthought: Is developing a domestic market for seal products an idea?
>
>
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