DESTRUCTIVE SEAL.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4768, 24 October 1924, Page 3

DESTRUCTIVE SEAL.

ATTACK SALMON FISHERIES; GREAT HAVOC WROUGHT. the balance of nature is constantly being upset, and man has to take drastic steps to see it right once more. The latest example is occurring -in the seas off British Columbia,, where kthe hair-seals are proving so deistructive to the salmon fisheries that a strenuous campaign against them is being prepared in- order to save certain species of salmon from utter destruction The hair-seals are not the animals which are taken for their fur, and as they are not hunted for commercial purposes they multiply freely. Some yeans ago it was estimated that there were herds of 30,000 to .40.000 1 , but the numbers have enormously increased. As a single seal is estimated to destroy £2OOO worth of salmon in one season, the total destruction of fish can be imagined. At least £1,000,000 a yeai is lost through the work of the seate, and the animals have Won the name bf water-wolves among the fishermen. x They arc so cunning that no device to catch them succeeds for long, and so serious is the menace that :he Government authorities will shortly begin an active campaign against the seals with machine-guns. It is sad, but it is neceissary if the salmon is to be preserved in the Fraser River.