From Wesley Ludemann
Contrary to Nick Palmer’s opinion, the culling of Canada’s harp seal pups is well justified, as it could allow the survival of the few remaining cod (25 March, p 22). Harp seals eat enormous quantities of fish, and are very wasteful. As pointed out in Mark Kurlansky’s book Cod, harp seals don’t like to deal with bones: they tear into the belly of the cod and leave the rest.
Cod can live for 20 to 30 years, and used to grow to well over 1.5 metres long, weighing 90 kilograms. Fully mature, they were relatively safe from seal predation, and spawned astronomical quantities of eggs. Because of overfishing, mature cod no longer exist. The larger remaining codlings are 2 to 3 years old and under 60 centimetres long. Since all the large cod have been fished out, these remaining bite-sized juvenile cod are the only hope for continuation of the species.
During the last seal-hunting ban, the harp seal population doubled. Culling is necessary to save the remaining cod.
Livermore, California, US
