In the past five years, New England’s growing seal population has been blamed for luring great white sharks to Cape Cod beaches. Fishermen complain they have to compete against the marine mammals’ insatiable appetite for a dwindling number of fish. The relationship between seals and humans has grown so tense that five adult seals were shot in the head last year.
Now comes a broad-based effort to study one of the most common and mysterious animals off New England’s coast and help resolve human-seal conflicts.
Comments
Yes, let's do serious research on the impacts that humans have on seals AND the impacts that seals have on humans. Then we can decide what the appropriate policy would be.
This is has got to be one of the funniest NIMBY-snobs article I've ever seen! A rather literal example of the exceptionalist "our **** don't stink" attitude favored by the elite.
Anyone who knows about the state of the ocean around Cape Cod knows that the biggest problem is the residential sewage leaking into the ocean. Everyone on the Cape has septic tanks, which leach the waste into the sandy soil. Unlike the soil on the mainland, the sandy Cape soil leaks the waste into the ocean. That's why you see that mung-like algae-seaweed stuff in the water just off the beach.
The problem has only gotten worse as the counties on the Cape have led Massachusetts in development over the last 30 years. The towns on the Cape face a serious long-term problem with this, because the only answer is installing expensive municipal sewer systems.
But that's not what the these folks are worried about! They've purged the dog-walkers off the beach, they've arrested all the teenagers, but this malinger just can't be chased off by the cops! They're going to have to look out from their vacation homes and see those dark bodies on the beach, and there's nothing they can do about it! (I heard a couple seals were reported to be wearing hooded sweatshirts!)
Maybe these wealthy folks in their shore homes can re-discover the concept of "sharing" in life???