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Several years ago I found a harbour seal with gun shot wounds dying on a beach in Crystal Crescent Beach Provincial Park. I assumed at the time that this was an isolated incident. Not so it seems. Shotgun blasts have come from the direction of Sambro Island for years but I only recently found out what is happening there. Apparently, and this uncorroborated, fishermen possibly with permits are killing seals and their pups. The really disturbing part is that shotguns will not kill grey seals or even harbour seals but will cause them such pain and agony that they eventually drown after suffering horribly. Since this happens with a secret handshake between the Department of Fisheries and Oceans(also uncorroborated) and local fisherman it begs the question on how many more secret handshakes are occurring and how many other seal colonies are being butchered in this manner. The coast guard base at Sambro Harbour certainly knows about this activity since the gun shots can be heard all around the area. The answer to this depravity is simple. Buy the island from the Coast Guard and close it to all human traffic. Only a small portion of land is needed to host the lighthouse itself. Which brings up another act of stupidity and barbarism. This time by the Coast Guard. They hover their helicopters over the lighthouse regularly for extended periods for what purpose I do not know but this could only be disruptive if not destructive to the Arctic Tern colony. I recognize that the folks on this list can do nothing but perhaps, just perhaps, this story can be followed up by a journalist if the dissemination of this information is wide enough. To quote a famous Newfoundlander John Crosbie, "I didn't take the fish out of the (expletives deleted) water". When John Cabot first came to these shores he had to plow through the cod so the fallacious argument that the seals ate all the fish does not hold water(sorry). The fisherman took the fish out of the water. Laura and I will make a contribution to the Nova Scotia Nature Trust to help them buy this island if hopefully they will take on this project and then take this island away from our government(s) and close it to humans except under supervision. Hans -- Hans Toom http://www.hanstoom.com http://www.hanstoom.com/blog
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