Editor:
Re: “Humans quick to cull,” Letters, Jan. 18.
I congratulate Ms. van Berkel on giving a factual response to the letter from Bruce Smith (“Seals out of balance,” Jan. 11) who advocates for culling seals because their population apparently has been allowed “to increase such that it is totally out of balance with the environment.” The only species on this planet that is “totally out of balance with the environment” is our own. We are the only species that destroys its own habitat to the detriment of all others and the future of the planet.
Mr. Smith objects to “idiotic politicians” earmarking funds to save the orcas on our B.C. coast. I feel sure that these politicians have taken their cues from scientists worldwide, and from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, not in spite of them. Even if this orca program is only marginally successful with restoring new pods to the West Coast, their increased numbers will help keep seal populations in check.
Mr. Gordon Cassidy, in a follow-up letter (“Let nature select,” Jan. 18), thanks Mr. Smith for his letter and advances the theory of natural selection for dealing with increased seal populations. There could be merit to that argument but it should then be applied to all species – especially Homo sapiens. We, however, are protected from the womb to the grave with modern medical science. No culling for us!
When the East Coast cod fisheries collapsed 30 years ago, some pointed to the seal population as being the cause. We now know that is not true. Overfishing by man destroyed the cod shoals off the Grand Banks.
With the West Coast salmon returns dwindling, some are now resorting to the same blame game. It’s the seals! Wake up – it’s us. Everything we do on our rivers and coast is wrong, whether it’s building dams, industrial runoff, logging, net pen salmon farms or many other forms of human pollution. So leave the seals alone. Why do we, as a species, always have to be so greedy?
Norma Webb, Gibsons
