Thanks. I did not know their populations had rebounded nor that they were protected. State voters here in CA protected mountain lions some years ago and they are all over now. You can’t enter a county or state park without man lion warning signs. Humans are sure nice to let bears, wolves, lions, and sharks back on top of the food chain. Nothing I like better than being afraid that I’m going to be some critter’s dinner when I’m hiking and swimming.
The big attraction for the white sharks is that when they get around 12 long they start feeding on marine mammals.
Seals in Mass. had a bounty on them until 1962, then it was the Federal Govt. who protected them in the Marine Mammal Protection act in 1972.
There was an insignificant amount of seals around then, but the population has exploded to the point some fisheries are being depleted by the seals on Cape Cod.
Seals are still protected, and the Fed Govt. doesn't seem inclined to cull them to reasonable numbers. -Tom