Why spend all that keeping track of vermin? Is the northeast seal population in that much need of thinning?
Because of protection from the Fed Govt. the seal population has gone from a few dozen Grey Seals to about 6,000. That's right six thousand. The seals eat a lot of fish and the local commercial fishermen are upset.
People in Chatham were thinking about hiring Inuit Indians to kill the seals, but the Feds probably won't let Inuits kill these seals because it is not part of their traditional life style.
So now other ideas are being hashed about like loud speakers to drive the seals away.
This will only move the problem somewhere else. For the first time a friend of mine who lives in Plymouth Mass. has seen Grey Seals last month in his area. I bluefish over at Provincetown and for the first time last year we had to quit because of Grey Seals attacking the hooked bluefish. So you end up fighting a 400 lb seal on a light spinning rod. There were some shore places on Cape Cod that were great for surf fishing. No moe. The seals wait for a hookup and attack the hooked striper or bluefish. -tom