Originally Posted By: Carcassman
The conundrum we have is that the pinnipeds are way above a sustainable level and the SKWs and Chinook aren't. Wonder if the fact that we stopped killing the seals has any impact on their recovery.


Being a similar straight line thinker the clear answer is YES. Fiddle with the numbers but there is no denying the evidence.

And I will add that when the issue of pinniped predation was raised as a factor in rockfish recovery NOAA folks opined that seal scat studies in the San Juans indicated a very small percentage with rockfish DNA and that the rockfish DNA had not been identified by species (see, speak and hear no evil). They further indicated that since those listed rockfish were generally found in deeper water than where seals forage there wasn't an issue. Then when they tried to justify MPAs they said that the MPAs needed to run to the beach to provide sanctuary for juveniles of those same listed rockfish species - and therefore be susceptible to seal predation. (Left hand meet right hand.)

And that doesn't even address the increasing population of California seal lions and Stellar sea lions which forage at much deeper depths and are known to eat rockfish.
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