Fisheries minister pledges to study impact of seals on Atlantic Canada’s fisheries & More News Here

More analysis is required on the impact of seals on dwindling East Coast fish shares, federal Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray mentioned Thursday, in response to a report by the area’s fisheries trade.

Part of that analysis will embrace a summit in St. John’s this fall on the nation’s seal inhabitants, Murray mentioned, reacting to the newly launched report from the Atlantic seal science process staff, which was commissioned by the Fisheries Department in 2020.

The report mentioned the excessive numbers of gray seals and harp seas “are at, or approaching, historic levels” and are having a “serious impact on the ocean ecosystem in Atlantic Canada. The extent of the impacts cannot be determined with the limited information held by (Fisheries Department) science.”

It mentioned the gray seal inhabitants in Atlantic Canada has elevated from round 15,000 within the Nineteen Sixties to 424,300 animals in 2016, which is the biggest focus of gray seals on the earth. The area’s harp seal inhabitants has elevated from roughly two million animals within the Seventies to an estimated 7.6 million in 2019 — the biggest Northwest Atlantic harp seal inhabitants in recorded historical past.

Groundfish shares in Atlantic Canada, the report mentioned, “are at or near the lowest level ever observed and are experiencing very little recovery due to very high levels of unexplained natural mortality, which has been attributed to seals in some regions, but not in other regions.”

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Glenn Blackwood, co-chairman of the staff that produced the report, mentioned the mortality price for a lot of fish shares is excessive, including that the area’s fishing trade and the Fisheries Department want to know what function seals are taking part in within the ocean ecosystem.

“Additional work needs to be done on harp and grey seal feeding,” Blackwood informed the information convention. “Also on distribution patterns, and we need to understand the relationship of seals to fish stocks.”

“We believe that industry is ready to step up and work with DFO science on designing, collecting the samples and solving this problem,” he added.

Speaking exterior a seafood processing plant, Murray drew applause when she mentioned she is aware of “seals eat fish.”

“So, that’s the reason we need to better understand the impact they are having on our fish stocks,” she mentioned. The minister mentioned that as a primary step, her division will host a seal summit this fall.

“That will be to broaden engagement on Atlantic seals and bring stakeholders together to discuss approaches for science, market development and management,” she mentioned.

Murray mentioned her division is dedicated to sustaining the prevailing markets for Canadian seal merchandise and supporting the event of potential new markets.

That information was welcomed Thursday by the Fur Institute of Canada, which is the nationwide voice for the fur trade.

“Uncontrolled seal populations threaten the health of our oceans and the communities that rely upon them. They threaten the sustainability of our fishing industry, they threaten biodiversity, and they threaten rebuilding our fish stocks,” Doug Chiasson, the institute’s govt director, mentioned in an announcement.

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