‘Almost going to be forced to do something about it’: Hungry seals’ impact on the fishing industry

A new study reignites the debate on whether the federal government should increase seal hunting to protect the cod population. Garrett Barry reports.

A team at Memorial University’s Marine Institute in St. John’s has recently published new data, suggesting seals are removing far more cod from the waters surrounding the province than fish harvesters are. According to their estimates, removals by hungry seals outnumbers those of fishing activities by roughly 20 to one.

“A lot of people have wondered why the cod stock hasn’t recovered as quickly as they expected,” said Tyler Eddy, a researcher who assisted on the project. “This is why we’re starting to look at different parts of the system.”

Published in the Marine Ecology Progress Series on Oct 30, Eddy and his team wrote in their paper their findings should prompt authorities at the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) to include seal diets in its assessments of the health of the northern cod stock.

“I hope they didn’t need to go … to get a doctorate to learn that,” said Alfred Fitzpatrick, a fish harvester in Garnish on Newfoundland’s Burin Peninsula. “Fishermen have been saying this since, I don’t know, the dawn of time.”

Many fishermen, as well as well as the Fish, Food and Allied Workers (FFAW) union in Newfoundland and Labrador, have pointed their fingers at seals. They’ve blamed them for the poor recovery of the northern cod stock and have alleged federal fisheries officials have downplayed or denied the link between seals and cod stocks.

Although the northern cod fishery reopened to some commercial activity in 2024, population estimates and catch allowances are a fraction of what they used to be before the 1992 moratorium that laid off thousands of N.L. fishermen.

“This study validates what’s been seen on the water,” said Jamie Baker, an official at FFAW, in a statement. “If DFO wouldn’t listen to harvesters before, maybe they’ll listen now.

There are roughly 4.4 million harp seals off the N.L. coasts. Seal hunting has rapidly declined in recent years, and there is little demand left for products like seal pelts and meat.

For years, fish harvesters have called on Ottawa to do more to control seal populations near the province, by either encouraging more hunting or arranging for a seal cull, where animals would be hunted simply to remove them from the ecosystem.

Although the population of harp seals exploded between the ‘70s and ‘90s, the population of harp seals has declined from its peak, according to DFO estimates, from about 7.5 million seals in 1998 to 4.4 million in 2024.

“A consistent harvest of seals, combined with increased demand and better market access would certainly help drive effective management of the population,” Baker said.

In a statement, a DFO spokesperson said Ottawa has been supporting marketing efforts for seal products.

DFO acknowledged the study and that seal eating habits impact fish populations, but argued “it is well established that northern cod dynamics are driven by capelin biomass.”

Fitzpatrick said that with the boom years of the crab fishery winding down and cod becoming more important economically, once again, he predicts federal officials will be forced to act and find some way to bring down seal populations on the island.

“They are almost going to be forced to do something about it,” he said. “The whole economy is going to rely on cod once again, more so now than lately.”