The Atlantic Seal Science Team released their final report this week, which offered a damning review of the science used by DFO to guide their decisions on seal management.
The Seal Team was formed by DFO two years ago to get input from the fishing industry and stakeholders on DFO’s science related to seal predation on commercial fish stocks.
The report calls for more fulsome research into seals stating that the current research on food requirements and feeding studies is inadequate.
“The ASSTT recognizes the scientific work DFO has done in estimating the population size of harp and grey seals. However, the ASSTT considers the food, feeding and migration data for the harp and grey seal populations in Atlantic Canada1 to be woefully inadequate to accurately determine the role seals play in the Northwest Atlantic Ecosystem and the impacts on other ecosystem components.”
-Report of the Atlantic Seal Science Task Team
DFO’s commission of the study is indicative of their awareness that they need to conduct more research on seals in Atlantic Canada.
Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray responded to the report on Friday during a presentation in Newfoundland and recognized the need for more work to be done.
Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray responding to the report from the Seal Science Team in St. John’s, NFLD. Photo: Twitter
“We know seals eat fish, which is why our government established the Atlantic Seal Science Task Team. To build on the Task Team’s important work, we are taking immediate action on some of their recommendations, hosting a seal summit and investigating how to include seal impacts in fisheries management decisions,” said Murray. “We will be closely reviewing the remainder of the report. Canada’s fish and seafood sector supports thousands of jobs and is vital to our economy; it has the full support of the federal government behind it.”
That response has since been criticized by Fisheries critic Rick Perkins, “Rather than taking action to address the problem of seal overpopulation in the Northern Atlantic, the Minister has simply kicked the can down the road and announced a meeting to discuss the issue in September.”
Current population estimates from the DFO show there are over 7.5 million harp seals around Nova Scotia and around 400,000 grey seals.
