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The government is examining the possibility of a “crazy” pilot scheme to shoot seals with high-powered rifles from ships.
The scheme would potentially allow licensing in Kerry and Cork to protect fishermen’s catches.
The latest population estimates available to the government indicate that there are approximately 8,000 to 10,000 gray seals and around 5,000 harbor seals in Ireland.
According to Minister Darragh O’Brien, while seals are a protected species, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage can issue licenses to “euthanize individual problem seals, and affected people can apply for such licenses.”
This year five license applications have been received.
“One was approved. One was rejected because it was related to the shooting of seals in the Blasket Islands, a Special Conservation Area for seals,” O’Brien confirmed in writing to Michael Healy Rae.
“The remaining three applications, two in Kerry and one in Cork, involved shooting seals, including from boats.
“There are concerns about this approach to seal management, given potential safety concerns that arise from the use of high-powered rifles on mobile platforms.
“However, my Department is examining the possibility of a pilot plan to test this approach and determine its effectiveness in protecting fishermen’s catches.
“The decision on the remaining licenses has been delayed until this pilot plan can be advanced. Plans to initiate this plan at the beginning of the year had to be postponed due to the pandemic.”
Pádraic Fogarty of the Irish Wildlife Trust says the problem is a shortage of fish, which is not compounded by seals.
“The idea of shooting seals with rifles from ships is crazy,” he said.
“There has long been a narrative that seals are to blame for poor fish catches, but this can be attributed to chronic overfishing and the destruction of marine habitats over the past decades.
“Fish populations have collapsed around our coastline due to bottom trawling in particular. There has never been evidence to suggest that shooting seals will solve this problem.”
Melanie Croce, Executive Director of Seal Rescue Ireland, says a broader environmental approach would be much more effective than shooting animals.
“For comparison, there are 120,000 seals in the UK,” he said.
“We are very backward and seals are very important for the marine environment, for recycling nutrients and feeding plankton.
“As a broader issue, we should protect biodiversity, we undertake proactive environmental work by planting trees around waterways, which promote fish life and improve water quality.
“The degraded quality of the water explains the scarcity of fish, there are common ground here, we can protect the environment, the seals and the fishermen, instead of the fishermen and the seals fighting for the last remaining fish.
“This also sounds very unsafe for humans and seals, and we know that fishing is already an unsafe profession.”
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