ST. JOHN’S, N.L. - The federal Fisheries Department is trying to shed more light on seals’ impact — or lack thereof — on Newfoundland and Labrador’s cod stocks, which have still not recovered from a collapse decades ago.
In a press briefing today, marine mammal scientist Garry Stenson said his office is regularly inundated with calls from media and the public asking if the seal population is out of control, and if the animals are eating all the cod or the capelin the cod depends on.
He says the seals don’t have nearly the impact on cod stocks as some maintain, from the province’s fisheries union to federal politician Yvonne Jones.
Jones, the Liberal MP for the riding of Labrador, tweeted in April that seals were “destroying the ecosystem, including cod” in response to a Canadian Press story about the impact of fishing on the struggling cod stocks.
Instead, Stenson said changes in the cod stocks have historically been driven by fishing and changes in the capelin population, which stem from shifting sea ice and ocean temperatures.
Stenson and his co-presenter, research scientist Mariano Koen-Alonso, said the science doesn’t support the narrative that seals are impeding a cod recovery and focus should shift to the ocean’s changing ecosystem and the effects of climate change.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 29, 2021.
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