Peppered Seal or Peppered Tasmanian Salmon? - The Habitat Grab

When one thinks of Tasmania, the extinct animals such as the Thylacine/ Tasmanian Tiger (image) or the battling Tasmanian Devil might come to mind. If one endulged in some Tasmanian farmed salmon, one might keep in mind what one is chewing on...

Various seals (Pinnipeds) along with other endemic fauna have inhabited the coastline of Tasmania for aeons. It is in the nature of these marine mammals to annually aggregate on solid ground, like beaches or rocky islands to rest and reproduce.

Human factory farming encroaches on the animals' only habitat - the ocean. A grid of commercial infrastructure clutters the coastal waters. Fish are in sea cages that are "more like the battery hen of the sea".

The aqua-'culture' encroachment of human industry entails the elimination of 'wild' habitat for the other species. The Wildland/Urban Interface (WUI), or better the ocean industrial interface (OII) is the battle ground where our species conquers bio-diversity by replacing it with a simple mono-culture. Monetizing the ocean does mean an extra $350 million!

The Battle
The remaining inhabitants can be framed as pests, in need of culling, a popular Australian strategy for endemic wildlife. Their eradication as a competitor could boost profits, as the seals might mistake a fish for their own. Members of the fishing community set to work shooting at the beasts for hours. Many get away with firearm wounds. Others resort to shallow graves for the seals. But the 'unintentional' by-kill, also known as by-catch is via fishing industry gear. Feral plastic debris causes a slow and painful death for 2% of Tasmania's seals.

In desperation seals fight for their homes and resources. Agents of the fishing industry will now be equipped with a chemical club reserved for riot control of human beings. Pepper spray (Oleoresin capsicum) is designed to disable the terrestial mammal. Aquatic marine mammals might just drown instead of dying from lead or plastic. The grab for their habitat, deeper and deeper into the ocean, will probably spell the end of many species.

When making consumer choices enquire if your fish came from an overcrowded sea cage in a seal habitat.


Links:
Seals, Parks & Wildlife, Tasmania
How green and clean is Tasmanian salmon? The 7.30 Report, abc 09/12/2009
Peppered seal the new fish farm defence abc 27/08/2010
Ocean clutter delicious tag

Image:
Albert Bierstadt, Seal Rock, California 1872 via Zeno

You might also like to read
Strangling and Piercing Fur Seals 'Unintentionally' with Fishing Gear
Tasmanian Salmon marinated in...

Strangling and Piercing Fur Seals 'Unintentionally' with Fishing Gear

Fur Seals were killed during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries to lubricate human progress. In proud defiance the glorious deeds are continued today, despite the marine mammals protected status.
It is common practice in Australia in the 21 Century to shoot the sea creature with bullets or arrows. Recently a pair emptied 100 bullets in an hour into a fur seal colony on Canowa Island near Wilson's Promontory. If not intentionally eradicated, then they are apparently "unintentionally" pierced, strangled and cut up by the marine debris left by mind-less "recreational" fishing people. Here is one example from Victoria's Bass Coast:

"Over the past 10 years, seal rescue crews have found more than three entangled seals for each day they spend researching the colonies...Thirty-one seals were found entangled in discarded fishing debris at Seal Rocks in the year to June 2008. The shark hooks were embedded deep. One was lodged in the side of the seal's head; the other was caught in the underside of its tongue. It looked like it had a bridle on because it had these two hooks through its head and a wire trace." connecting between them...Material like fishing line starts to wear its way into the seal pretty quickly, then they get wounds opening up and they can die of dehydration because they've got these big open wounds weeping all the time. Squid jigs and hooks create the most gruesome scenes, while recent missions have also found seals trapped in a pair of fisherman's overalls and another seal was found sporting a degraded baseball cap."

The fin-footed mammals escaping fishing debris have to deal with other human 'debris, toxic pollution and oil spills'.

Toothless 'appeals' do not pose effective conservation of the species. Make "recreational taking" with such a high by-kill rate illegal in wildlife protected areas and densely populated areas. Enforce the law, otherwise the 'ecotourism' industry will get to see 'Seal Rocks' in name only, as it is so common in Australia.
Images:
1. Baldung Grien, Hans, 1516 (altered) via Zeno
2. Skeleton of a seal, A. Brehm, (altered) via Zeno

>> Peppered Seal or Peppered Tasmanian Salmon? The Habitat Grab