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Hans,
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   I feel your pain and disgust at the slaughter of seals, but I am  afraid that buying Sambro Island and keeping people away from it will not resolve the issue. Seals can be easily shot from a boat, and you cannot simply ban boating around the island. Besides, who might enforce such a ban? Ultimately the solution lies in public education. I know of several seal colonies in the province that are a bit of a local tourist attraction, visited by tourist boats.
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   Dusan Soudek
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<br/>> On May 11, 2015 at 9:04 AM Hans <htoom@hfx.eastlink.ca> wrote:
<br/>>
<br/>>
<br/>> Several years ago I found a harbour seal with gun shot wounds dying on a
<br/>> beach in Crystal Crescent Beach Provincial Park. I assumed at the time
<br/>> that this was an isolated incident. Not so it seems.
<br/>>
<br/>> Shotgun blasts have come from the direction of Sambro Island for years
<br/>> but I only recently found out what is happening there. Apparently, and
<br/>> this uncorroborated, fishermen possibly with permits are killing seals
<br/>> and their pups. The really disturbing part is that shotguns will not
<br/>> kill grey seals or even harbour seals but will cause them such pain and
<br/>> agony that they eventually drown after suffering horribly.
<br/>>
<br/>> Since this happens with a secret handshake between the Department of
<br/>> Fisheries and Oceans(also uncorroborated) and local fisherman it begs
<br/>> the question on how many more secret handshakes are occurring and how
<br/>> many other seal colonies are being butchered in this manner. The coast
<br/>> guard base at Sambro Harbour certainly knows about this activity since
<br/>> the gun shots can be heard all around the area.
<br/>>
<br/>> The answer to this depravity is simple. Buy the island from the Coast
<br/>> Guard and close it to all human traffic. Only a small portion of land is
<br/>> needed to host the lighthouse itself. Which brings up another act of
<br/>> stupidity and barbarism. This time by the Coast Guard. They hover their
<br/>> helicopters over the lighthouse regularly for extended periods for what
<br/>> purpose I do not know but this could only be disruptive if not
<br/>> destructive to the Arctic Tern colony.
<br/>>
<br/>> I recognize that the folks on this list can do nothing but perhaps, just
<br/>> perhaps, this story can be followed up by a journalist if the
<br/>> dissemination of this information is wide enough.
<br/>>
<br/>> To quote a famous Newfoundlander John Crosbie, "I didn't take the fish
<br/>> out of the (expletives deleted) water". When John Cabot first came to
<br/>> these shores he had to plow through the cod so the fallacious argument
<br/>> that the seals ate all the fish does not hold water(sorry). The
<br/>> fisherman took the fish out of the water.
<br/>>
<br/>> Laura and I will make a contribution to the Nova Scotia Nature Trust to
<br/>> help them buy this island if hopefully they will take on this project
<br/>> and then take this island away from our government(s) and close it to
<br/>> humans except under supervision.
<br/>>
<br/>> Hans
<br/>>
<br/>> --
<br/>> Hans Toom
<br/>> http://www.hanstoom.com
<br/>> http://www.hanstoom.com/blog
<br/>>
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