Is anyone old enough to remember a relative who used to kill seals and get paid a bounty by the state? My uncle used to do that out of Anacortes. I have his old #97 Winchester pump 12 gauge that shows a little rust from using it in the salt water to blast seals. He would shoot them, harpoon them and cut off their snout. He turned in the snouts to fisheries and was paid a bounty. Do you think Washington Trout would help get this practice back into law...after all the seals are eating tons of wild fish. I know the Makah tribe kills a ton of seals...in their treaty rights....Has anyone else noticed the huge drop in seal populations off Neah Bay...Since the seals and sea lions have been treated as royalty for so long their numbers are exploding. Is it time to get those old harpoons out of great grandpa's attic?

A bounty? I'd do it for free.

I'm curious about the seal population in Hood Canal.

Do those of you that fish the canal regularly notice a decline in the population since the Transient Orcas came in and fed on the HC seal population last summer?

In Sept. I saw a Makah F&G officer shoot a seal that was hanging out near the mouth of the river. It sure took me by suprise, but I was the only one, as it was business as usual for the locals.

Not sure how I feel about this. In this case, the seal was shot so the snaggers upstream could catch their limit of hatchery coho.

I've lost fish to sea lions at Neah, but not seals.... come to think of it, I dont see many either.

Frankly I find it hard to believe that seals (as opposed to sea lions) do much to affect the salmon population. Sea lions are another story and in some cases reducing numbers is probably the way to go.

I can't help but scoff, though, at the number of people that seem all too eager to decimate a species because it's dietary habits compete with our recreational pursuits. As if our other attempts to manage ecosystems to our recreational advantage have been so successful.

Great GP here we go again. Lace up your mucklucs as it is soon going to get deep.

I read some stuff about this, and in the British Isle there is great concern about the increased seal populations as they relate to ocean polution. The numbers were staggering as to what the seal populations and size of poop piles will be in the future if left unchecked.

Just had a tug of war a couple weeks ago with a big bull sea lion over about a 20 lb. blackie off Hat Is.! Damn sea lions, I'm all for it to an extent. I agree with Elkrun and Skywalker that in fact its not the seals at all, its the damn
sea lions that are the overall problem, maybe its time they let us harvest some.

Still lots of seals in the canal. It is really hard to tell if there is a noticeable decline or not because the canal is so spread out. But, everytime time out I didn't have any problem seeing a least a few.

One nice thing is I havn't seen any sealions.

I well remember the days of seal bounties. I even remember the big events that were made of seal control on haulouts, especially in Waldport, Oregon, where ODFW would lay dynamite on a sand bar that seals were using, publicise when they were going to torch it off, close the highway on the bridge so spectators could watch, and you should have heard the cheering when the resulting explosion vaporized 100 at a time Can't say that I'd recommend going back to the seal control days, however, overfishing and habitat loss are much bigger problems for salmon than seals ever were.

Seals are indeed a problem for taking fish away from you - several places have educated seals that pretty much make their living off of stealing hooked fish. I have had trouble from both but more from seals than sea lions. Last year I had to take 3 fish away from seals - basically what you do is run them with the boat and stay on top of them, when they have to come up for air you poke your net at them, which startles them enough that they drop your fish, then scoop it quick because as soon as they get a breath they will come right back. I've had a few persistant seals that I even had to hit with the net - one I almost even netted to get him to let go of my fish

Sea lions on the other hand are not so likely to grab your fish on the line, but they will do other endearing things, like grab the fish out of your hand as you are rinsing it off after cleaning it (a bud of mine just about lost his fingers this way - he could feel the teeth slide by ) or grab them off your stringer - I know that's happened to a few of you guys that fish the CR - which is why I carry a cooler and bleed them in a bucket on board the boat. The few sea lions I've had grab a hooked fish let go as soon as I ran them down - they seem a bit more skittish about being chased.

The seal population in Hood Canal seems to have declined by about 2/3 after the transient Orcas got through with them. This past year was on of the first in which I didn't have a Hood Canal seal grab one of my fish in recent memory. Now something I've always thought would be cool is to paint your boat black and white in an Orca pattern.....

Oh yeah, for the record it is illegal to harrass marine mammals. I'm sure my going after the seal that has my fish on my line in it's mouth and touching it will a dip net is illegal. So arrest me already and I'll see you in court :p

Thats kind of funny Spawnout...
I have had the exact opposite experience... never have had a seal grab a fish I was fighting, but I did have a sealion grab a 30+ pound king at sekui... ( Long story there but I did get the fish after doing what you said keeping the boat over the beast so he couldn't come up for air...)

I have had seals hook up on herring though... Gotta thumb that spool quick cause those suckers can fly under water....

Me thinks you're just not catching big enough fish... :p

I had both seals and seal lions take fish from me, but never a seal at Neah bay. I have had sea lions take them right off my hook here in PA. Last year I lost a good 10-12 lb blackie probably 50 feet down. Nothing left but a gill plate and empty eye socket. A big old bull popped up and flipped the fish up in the air a few times to rub it in, then inhaled it and followed me around for a half hour or so.



It seems to be a bigger problem for me during the winter blackmouth seasons.... probably because its harder for them to make an honest living with fewer fish around.

Up north I fish around seals and sealions on a daily basis, I have yet (in 30 yrs. of salmon fishing) had a seal take a fish, on the other hand, I lose anywhere from 6 to 15 salmon a year and a handful of paddle halibut to sealions, it seems every season gets a little worse.
I did get a little revenge last season on 1 particularly aggressive bull that had been staying in 1 hotspot all season and was stealing fish on a daily basis, I saw him chasing about a 30-35lbs. king and had just enough time to launch a sealbomb, it hit the water about 10 feet from him and it diverted his attention, he came over to investigate and with mouth wide open and less then a foot away it went off, he porpoised 1 time and disappeared, not sure what the damage was but I think it atleast loosened a tooth or 2 and gave him a headache.
Commercial guys in Ak can legally shoot them (if there interfering with their livelihood), always gets a smile out of me when I hear a distant 12 ga. blast.

One of those I got back from a seal last year was a 22 pound springer at Cathlamet - was that one big enough Piper :p

Also had more than a couple on herring - one when I used to mooch out of a rowboat. They are fast once they get going, but they can't accellerate like a salmon. Once I figured out what I had on I bunged down the drag and let him tow the boat around - he couldn't even get up enough speed to snap a 20 pound leader against the bend of my rod without towing the boat. Wore him out in about 20 minutes and could have landed or done something nasty to him, but with about 500 picture windows at Steilacoom looking at me I just grabbed the lead and snapped him off. 'Bout a 250 pounder though, beat anything I've ever caught except perhaps an oversize sturgeon

Ah yes, AK, fun with seal bombs And one more punch on his marine mammal exclusion permit

I have had both seals and sea lions attempt to steal fish and believe that there are a few more around than there should be.I recall some time back when some beaches on the canal were closed to shellfish harvesting due to so much animal waste from seals and sea lions in the mouth of one of my favorite rivers.There was a horrible foul smell when you would walk out on the tide flats, funny you don't see as many of them around there anymore then you don't see near as many steelhead around there anymore either.

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Without the environmentalists pushing pet status for seals and sea lions the natural order of things may have kept them in check. The protected status for over abundant species has resulted in over population of predators...in this case seals and sea lions. So we save on species that contributes to the demise of another....salmon. Remember the locks and how the govt gave permission to kill the predators feasting on dwindling runs of steelhead and salmon>? Too politically incorrect so they chose to spend millions to capture and move them only to have them return over and over again and desimate fragile Lake Washington tributary runs.

I love the story about the dynamite.....

I've said this in a previous thread and will say again here. The seal and sea lion population is ten times what it was in Puget Sound 15 to 20 years ago. I primarily fish Possession Bar and Pt no Pt in the fall/winter/spring months and the bulk of the fish we lose are to seals out there not sea lions. Go to Pt no Pt or Possession some day fishing and I'll guarantee you that within a short period of time you will anywhere from three to six or eight seals in a semi circle around your boat. The minute you hook a fish it's a race to see if you can get the fish to the boat before the seal gets them. It wasn't this way in the 80's or even the real early ninety's. I can remember fishing these area's and hardly ever having to fight seals or sea lions for your salmon. In those days though you didn't see the number of seals and sea lions that you do now so I can only correlate the increased problem with increased numbers of sea lions. Whatever the reason I wouldn't hesitate to kill some if allowed and as another poster said "I would be happy to do it for free."

don't confuse Steller Sea lions, California Sea lions, and harbor seals...

Here's a good website you use to help identify:

Mammal Identification Page

Here are some photo's I was able to find:



steller sea lion ^



california sea lion ^



Harbor seal ^

A wolf ate my cows.