Well if man has to continually harvest the hell out of one species then I have to ask who has the ecology wrong?
I like my sealskin mitts as much as the next kablunak but I didnt get them for a fashion statement.
You could trim back so just the snot-wiper is sealskin. Farming nature is the best solution to world hunger, would America have beem better off harvesting Buffalo instead of switching to cattle?
The Grand Banks could still be productive if a feeding program was implemented when their numbers first started to decline. Science just had to determine what grain/plant best meets that feeding needs.
If we were really all that eco concerned we would be trying to put Canada back to the way it was when the fur traders first arrived. Using a series of shallow dams is still the best way to stop erosion along a running water areas. Sooner or later that 'pond' becomes a 'pasture'. That form of perma-culture is also being used to help retain water along streams is desert areas that suffer from flash floods. The 'man-made' low dams help retain water and once grass and trees take hold the area holds back even more water when it falls as rain and flash floods are a thing of the past for that area. Visable progress is measured in decades but it still is progress and once started it is almost self sustaining.
If we can farm cows we should be able to farm seals, we just have to make sure more are born than we harvest and in that harvest the whole animal is utilized so seal-jerky might get popular for the crowd doing a weekend camping trip and wanting to travel light. Their fat might be just the thing many uses, like WD-40 in a crayon like disperser to the formula for a better ski-wax. Harvest could be done by wandering around the herds while they were on shore and attaching a 'collar' that could be remotely activated so on harvest day all the ones marked could be killed and the ones left alive would flea the area making the gathering much easier, the ones swimming would float hopefully. The remote locations would point to the catch being frozen on site to retard rotting but all in all a 'busy farm' should process at least as much as any slaughter house running today and with seals you only need to feed them, pellets would be great as growing fish has it's own costs like making sure the overcrowding is offset by adding O2 to the water.
Actually, I'd like to see the orca and shark population time series superimposed over the seals. Anyone have that? Would be interesting to see seals vs. cod as well.
You have to give them something to eat.
