Living right on the beach, I used to go for years in the S Sound without seeing a single seal in the 1960's. And the fishing pressure in many areas I still fish was greater then than now, yet we still managed to catch a fair number of rockfish right in close to the marinas and the most heavily fished water. Same areas now are thick with seals, and for some reason the rockfish are gone (along with noticeable declines of greenling, flounder, Irish Lord, convict sculpiun, stugeon poacher, Sailfin Sculpin, and a variety of other non-target species).

Hmmm. Must be the sport harvest and lack of habitat causing all of that.