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seals

    THE SCUTTLEBUTT

    It’s Hide and Seek With Bass, but the Seals Are in Plain View

    Boats work together to make Provincetown a good fishing port

    By

    The game of hide and seek we’re playing with our striped bass continues — they seem to be unwilling to settle into an area and stay put. It’s a daily challenge to get a handle on what the heck these fish are doing. We have copious amounts of food for them everywhere in the form of sand eels and mackerel. Our water temperatures are steady in the mid-60s, although at the peak of the heat wave we recorded 74-degree surface temperatures off Beach Point.

    But back to my point: we had some fishing trips this week that ended not only with no fish being caught but also with no fish being seen on the fish finder. On other trips, we found miles and miles of hungry fish, hit catch limits, and returned to the dock early.

    So, what’s going on here? I would love to know. But it’s a big ocean and a boat can be a quarter mile from the mother lode and miss it completely. All we can do is fan out as a group and look long and hard for the fish.

    This is where cooperation among the charter boats comes in handy. Yes, we’re competing for customers, but when we all do well it invigorates the entire port. A rising tide lifts all boats, as they say, and only a fool doesn’t buy that.

    Seals hauled out on Long Point. (Photo by Mike Rathgeber)

    The fin whales are back in the bay off the race and Herring Cove. We got a great fin whale show while catching the very same mackerel they were chasing and feeding on. Hopefully, they stick around for a while, as it really enhances the fishing experience when you can see a whale while you’re at it.

    Along with the whales, the seals are back in our harbor and in big numbers. The other day I counted 80 seals hauled out at Long Point. People often ask me why fishermen are so upset at their overwhelming presence. There’s a simple answer. They are competing for the same fish we are trying to catch. And they’re winning.

    Let’s do the math on those 80 seals on Long Point. The average gray seal weighs around 500 pounds. Gray seals typically eat between 4 to 6 percent of their body weight each day. They primarily eat fish. So that means roughly 20 to 30 pounds of fish a day. Multiply 20 pounds by 80 seals and you have 1,600 pounds of fish consumed per day, which means about 11,000 pounds over the course of a week and some 45,000 pounds per month. And that’s just this one small group at Long Point. I’m not counting the 100 or so that were further in at the Horseshoe Cove.

    Is it any wonder our harbor, which used to be so full of bluefish, bass, flounder, and fluke, is now a dead zone?

    I can’t help but think about the defecation that follows all that seal feasting and wonder about its impact on our overall harbor water quality. Also, don’t think for one minute there aren’t great white sharks looking for these seals in our harbor. I see them fairly regularly.

    Can we do anything about all this? Short of revitalizing the hunt, not really. The only choice I see is adapting to the new environment. I am all ears if someone has a better idea.

    THE SCUTTLEBUTT

    One Fine Week for Bluefish, Bass, and Tuna Fishing

    Two fine messes we’re in: warm water and too many seals

    By

    Fishing this week was solidly good for bluefish, striped bass, and tuna. Water temperatures are rising to extremely warm levels for this part of the world, however. I recorded temperatures of 78 degrees in the harbor all the way out to Long Point and 74 degrees along the bayside beaches.

    Fortunately for those of us who want to catch striped bass, there is a thermocline. A thermocline is a boundary line in the water column that separates warm surface waters from much colder, denser waters below. The bass have been mostly entrenched below the thermocline in the cooler water, and those who have presented bait or lures in that zone have continued to be successful catching stripers.

    More seals than ever are being seen at Long Point. Likewise, more sharks than ever are being spotted in our waters. (Photo by Mike Rathgeber)

    Trollers are also doing very well, as they can present lures right on the bottom. There seems to have been a rather large school of shorts who have come into our area as many boats reported catching 24-to-26-inch fish. After a long stretch of catching fish outside the slot limit because they’ve been too big, now we’re talking about fish outside the limit because they’re too small.

    Bluefish are here in big numbers. Wood End to Herring Cove has been consistently hot, with big hungry fish hitting everything from jigs to poppers to swimmers. Catches of recreational-size bluefin tuna have been good mostly in the Peaked Hill area, but I still haven’t seen or heard of many giants coming into Provincetown.

    These unusually high water temperatures are worrisome, and not only because of the effects they will have on marine creatures who are used to much cooler water. Even though the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is predicting El Niño will develop this summer, which can suppress Atlantic hurricane activity, if a tropical system does develop on the East Coast and move into our area, these water temperatures would contribute to its further intensification. That is something that does not typically happen here; we count on our cool New England waters to weaken tropical systems.

    With Florida reporting areas with 90-degree water temperatures, this could be a very different tropical storm season along the entire East Coast and right up to our neck of the woods.

    Gray seals lounge on a backshore sandbar. (Photo by J.Z. Hunt)

    The Atlantic great white sharks are now here in full force and beach closures are, predictably, beginning to take place. Last week, Head of the Meadow, Newcomb Hollow, and Coast Guard beaches were closed from time to time after shark sightings. The beach at Great Point in Nantucket has been closed until further notice after five instances of sharks preying on seals there.

    A recent study of great whites around Cape Cod by scientists with the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy has determined that as many as 900 white sharks come to our outer shores in a typical season, making us the area of the world with the densest white shark population.

    And with seal colonies continuing to grow — have you seen Long Point lately? — and no plan to cull or manage the population, this issue is only going to get worse. I just don’t get it. We have managed deer, moose, and wolf populations for decades to keep the balance of predators and prey in check, yet we are indifferent to the situation here with the seals. It does not add up, and the economic impact of beach closures and water quality problems will eventually be felt by all if we don’t do something now.

    ENVIRONMENT

    Shark Mitigation Study Offers No Guarantees

    Woods Hole Group analyzed 27 alternatives

    By

    EASTHAM — “There isn’t a single alternative or suite of alternatives that can 100-percent guarantee the safety of all individuals who choose to enter the water,” coastal scientist Adam Finkle told a crowd of about 100 at Nauset Regional High on Oct. 17.

    Representing the Woods Hole Group (WHG), Finkle presented the results of the Outer Cape Shark Mitigation Alternatives Analysis completed by the consulting group. Its conclusion: no alternative can guarantee safety from shark attacks.

    But a “guarantee,” one citizen argued, is too high a mark to aim for.

    “There’s very few guarantees in life,” said Bob Wagner of Wellfleet. “Airbags are not 100-percent effective but people still get in their cars. It’s not stopping people from making cars because there may be an accident or a death that results if an airbag doesn’t deploy. People have to accept these risks.”

    Wagner directed his remarks to members of the Shark Working Group that includes Outer Cape town officials, National Seashore Supt. Brian Carlstrom, and Megan Winton of the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy (AWSC). The group fielded questions from the public after the presentation.

    The study, Finkle said, was not intended to produce a specific recommendation for action. The event, therefore, left many wondering what the next step is for dealing with the increasing shark and seal presence in local waters. Citizens and officials agreed that doing nothing is not an option, but without a clear-cut course many questions remain.

    Finkle, as project manager, gave an overview of the 192-page report. WHG plans to publish an executive summary that highlights key findings before the 2020 summer season for town and Seashore officials to review, he said.

    The analysis looked at 27 alternative strategies to mitigate encounters between sharks and humans in three categories: technology-based, barrier-based, and biological-based.

     

    Technology-based Barrier-based Biological-based
    Tagging (acoustic, real-time alert) Flexible Exclusion Barrier (Smart) Drum Lines
    Tagging (satellite, real-time alert) Rigid Exclusion Barrier Cull Nets
    Visual Detection (planes, helicopters) Semi-Rigid Exclusion Barrier Seal Contraception
    Visual Detection (tower-based) Bubble Curtains Seal Culling
    Visual Detection (balloons) Live Kelp Forests Indigenous Harvest
    Visual Detection (drones, tethered drones) Simulated Kelp Barrier Electric Shock
    Acoustic Detection (sonar buoy, real-time alert) Electrical Deterrents Scent-Smell
    Electromagnetic (active, wearable/mountable) Electromagnetic Deterrents Modify Behavior
    Magnetic (passive, wearable/mountable) Acoustic Barriers
    Adaptive Camouflage

    The study uses a detailed matrix to grade each of the 27 alternatives based on a set of six criteria: limiting factors, cost, permitting, effectiveness, potential impacts on humans, and potential environmental impacts. Each of the six categories contains a set of individual criteria.

    For example, the limiting factors are weather, marine conditions, effective range, effective depth, resilience to storm impacts, and commercial availability.

    Finkle went through each alternative with the audience. Some seemed promising but there were problems in every case.

    “None of the technology-based alternatives physically separates sharks from humans,” Finkle said.

    The study found that barrier systems have been installed in Australia and have been effective in excluding sharks from swimming areas for humans. But they come at a price.

    “A barrier would likely have extremely long permitting timelines and high cost if proposed locally,” he said.

    Biological-based alternatives were less promising.

    “Removing a couple thousand seals from the population is not likely to have a significant effect on the great white shark population,” Finkle said. “It’s also plausible that a reduction in the gray seal population may cause other gray seals from the greater northwest Atlantic population, close to 500,000, to move into the area to occupy that habitat.”

    One citizen pointed out what he called an error in the report, which suggests that a permit is required to operate a drone in the National Seashore.

    “[Drones] can be flown over the National Seashore, but they cannot take off or land within it,” Carlstrom said.

    Others questioned how well a drone could spot a shark beneath murky Cape waters.

    The 27 alternatives were chosen after WHG reviewed strategies used around the world, feedback from local towns, and feedback from a public survey.

    The survey was conducted in February and received 573 responses.

    “Results of the public survey proved critical to the development of this comprehensive list of alternatives,” the report states.

    The survey found that 50.1 percent of respondents said they preferred technology-based alternatives, 38.6 percent said they preferred biological-based alternatives, 16.2 percent said they preferred barrier-based alternatives, and 30.7 percent said they preferred an alternative that considered the human dimensions of the problem like engaging in “shark smart behaviors.” (Respondents could choose more than one answer.)

    Cost will be a significant factor in any decision that is made about shark mitigation.

    Jay Coleman, who owns a house in Eastham, questioned where the funding would come from for any proposed project. “You’re not going to get the money I don’t think from the federal government or from the taxpayers, are you?” he said.

    “I think that the results in this report and the money decisions are going to be made at a lot higher level than the shark working group,” said Chief Ranger Leslie Reynolds of the Seashore.

    The report is available to view online at eastham-ma.gov/home/news/outer-cape-shark-mitigation-alternatives-analysis.

     

     

     

    LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

    Letters, Oct. 17, 2019

    From Malcolm Pollack, Gail Ferguson, Katharine Baker, and L. Michael Hager

    By

    Beware the ‘Appeal to Nature’

    To the editor:

    The front-page article in the Sept. 6 issue titled “Culling Seals Is Wrong Answer to Shark Threat, Scientists Say”) is a fine example of the rhetorical device (and logical fallacy) known as the “appeal to nature.”

    It may well be that infestation by sharks and seals is the natural state of our local waters. This can tell us nothing, however, about what is good or right, or what we ought to do.

    Adding “scientists say” at the end of the headline merely compounds the fallacy: scientists can only tell us (with decidedly mixed results) what to expect from the natural world in response to various courses of action. They have, however, no privileged position in ethics or policymaking.

    The history of civilization is, in general terms, the history of humanity’s increasing control of nature. We all remember a time when we swam in the Cape’s waters without fear of deadly attack; this was surely due to the seal bounty that had been in effect since the 19th century.

    Reversion to a “state of nature” is generally a thing to be avoided in human affairs. Perhaps it would better have been avoided here as well.

    —Malcolm Pollack, Wellfleet

     

    Carlson’s HDYLTA Recusal

    To the editor:
    I am writing regarding your article “Wellfleet Struggles With Leadership Crisis” [online, Aug. 16] and the letter from Wil Sullivan [online, Aug. 29] that followed. In his letter Sullivan criticized select board member Justina Carlson for signing the June 22 HDYLTA shellfish flats purchase and sale agreement and then later declining to participate in a select board discussion of the purchase.

    Ms. Carlson had been very clear about her reason for not participating in deliberations concerning the HDYLTA property. She explained that, although she had received a legal opinion stating that she did not have a conflict of interest, she nevertheless felt that she should recuse herself from select board discussions and votes because of a personal relationship. Despite her recusal Carlson later participated in the June signing of the HDYLTA purchase and sale agreement so that the document would have the required number of legal signatures, thereby enabling the select board to proceed as scheduled. (Helen Wilson had become ineligible to sign because of her million-dollar pledge toward the cost of the town’s purchase.)

    Carlson cannot, based on these facts, be said to have abandoned or contradicted her earlier decision to recuse herself from substantive discussions. Her act of signing was strictly administrative, or ministerial. It was an act that was necessarily taken to enable the select board to implement the decision that the town’s voters had made at our annual town meeting, when we heartily approved money for the HDYLTA purchase.

    Carlson had spoken in support of the purchase at town meeting. She walked to the public microphone to speak, which indicated that she was electing to exercise her right to speak as a resident voter, and that she was not speaking as a select board member.

    —Gail Ferguson, Wellfleet

     

    An Island Institute Fan

    To the editor:

    David Panagore’s column about the Island Institute in Rockland, Maine [Oct. 10, page 3] was especially interesting to me because that is just across the water from my family place in Vinalhaven, and we’ve been members for years. Everything the article says is absolutely true.

    —Katharine Baker, Northampton and North Truro

     

    Setting a Standard

    To the editor:

    Congratulations on your launch of The Provincetown Independent. The first print issues demonstrate a range of reporting and a quality of writing that portends success. In an era of declining local journalism, you have set a new standard for press revival.

    —L. Michael Hager, Eastham

     

    ENVIRONMENT

    Culling Seals Is Wrong Answer to Shark Threat, Scientists Say

    Larger seal population seen as sign of healthy environment

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — Calls to curb the seal population in Cape Cod waters by ending their protected status under federal law are misguided, say scientists who study marine ecology. In spite of the increased presence of great white sharks here, they say, the return of both seals and sharks represents a re-establishment of the balance of nature that was upset by decades of seal hunting.

    Moreover, seals are wrongly blamed for polluting the water with their feces, and their effect on fish populations has been exaggerated, according to experts in marine life.

    Seals on the beach
    A gray seal haul-out with a young harbor seal in the foreground. (Photo courtesy Center for Coastal Studies under NOAA Permit No. 21719)

    Citizen groups like the Nantucket-based Seal Action Committee are calling for the removal of seals from the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act. The Barnstable County Commissioners heard a presentation from that group last month, and Commissioner Ron Beaty has argued that seals are a threat to the regional tourist economy. The evidence on the economy suggests otherwise.

    Richard Delaney, president of the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies (CCS), says the seal population will eventually stabilize once it reaches its carrying capacity in the Cape’s waters. Disease, predation from sharks, and limited food availability will “re-establish the balance that we really knocked out of kilter when we decided to interfere with it,” he said.

    Before 1800, seals inhabited the Cape in large numbers. “This was a natural habitat for them for years, until people decided that they were a nuisance,” Delaney said.

    From the late 1800s through the early 1960s, the state maintained a bounty on seals. “If you were a citizen of Cape Cod and killed a seal and brought its nose to town hall, you’d get a payment,” Delaney said. “That bounty put on seals basically eliminated all the seals in this area.”

    In 1972 Congress passed the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which prohibited killing seals and whales. “Once they were protected, seals were able to re-establish their natural niche in the ecosystem,” Delaney said. “That’s why from 1972 to now we have seen an increase in the population.”

    Responding to the shark threat

    The risk of shark attack, though small, is real. Rather than killing sharks or seals, however, marine scientists advocate more caution in the water. One example of that approach is a change of course for Provincetown’s popular annual Swim for Life, scheduled for Sept. 7 this year.

    Instead of crossing the open water of Provincetown Harbor from Long Point to the Boatslip Resort, as swimmers have done for each of the past 31 years, participants will instead swim along the coast.

    Map of new Swim for Life course
    This year’s Provincetown Swim for Life, on Sept. 7, will take a new route to the Boatslip.

    Swim for Life organizers decided to change the route two weeks ago, when the Cape Cod National Seashore denied a permit for the usual course because of concerns about shark activity.

    “It’s a low risk, but if something were to happen it would be a major catastrophe,” said Jay Critchley, director of the Provincetown Community Compact, which has sponsored the swim since its inception. Compact directors have discussed the possibility of alternate routes for several years as shark activity has increased, Critchley said.

    “The Compact board and Park Service were on the same page this year” about changing course, he said. This year, the swim will begin at the Provincetown Inn and finish, as usual, at the Boatslip.

    Critchley hopes the coastal route will mitigate fear among participants. “Every time I talk with somebody about the Swim for Life, they bring up Jaws,” he said. “That movie really scared people about being in nature.”

    Intense media coverage of the two shark attacks last summer in Truro and Wellfleet did not help. “The heightened public awareness and public concern about sharks, plus a lot of video — it’s just been an extravaganza,” he said.

    The evidence on seals and culling

    Andrea Bogomolni, chair of the Northeast Atlantic Seal Research Consortium, confirmed that the large seal population has both increased shark activity and caused some fish-stealing. As fish struggle against lines, they tire out, making them an easy dinner for seals.

    “Much of the recreational catch is thrown overboard [after being caught], so the discarded fish also attracts seals,” Bogomolni said.

    Provincetown charter boat Capt. Mike Rathgeber is concerned about the seals’ effect on Cape Cod’s ecosystems. But the seals have not been bad for business. In fact, Rathgeber said, “I’ve been using seals as a fish finder.” Seals hauled out on a beach typically indicate a large supply of fish in the surrounding waters.

    The recreational anglers that Rathgeber hosts also enjoy a “seal show” as the animals swarm around the boat to devour scraps left over from filleting.

    For all their cuteness, seals can be a nuisance, often eating the fish off Rathgeber’s lines. When a seal starts its attack on the hooked fish, “the only recourse we have is to cut the line and give it to them, but it also means the seal is eating the hook,” he said. “It happens very frequently, almost on a daily basis.”

    But market fish are not the seals’ primary source of food, according to preliminary results from a CCS research study. Delaney said seals primarily eat sand lances, small fish of about four or five inches, which are not fished for human consumption.

    “Seals actually eat an awful lot of things other than the striped bass and bluefish that the fishermen complain about,” Delaney said.

    Furthermore, seals do not contribute to water pollution. Delaney said that rigorous studies have not been able to prove a correlation between pollution and the presence of seals.

    “We human beings are far more culpable for putting pollution into the ocean than seals could ever be,” he said.

    Moreover, any effort to cull seals would be unlikely to have much effect. Even if all the seals in Cape Cod waters were exterminated, more would come to replace them. Delaney said that the 450,000 seals currently living in Nova Scotia would quickly fill the gap.

    “Once some of the seals realized it was safe, they could expand their habitat back down here,” he said. “The whole idea of culling seals is not based in science and does not understand the ecological relationships seals have in the ocean.” Seals play important roles in the coastal ecosystem, and their large numbers are a sign of a healthy environment.

    Climate change is not to blame for the booming seal population, at least not directly, Bogomolni said. Although some species, like lobster, are migrating farther north to find cooler water, the seals’ diverse diet allows them greater flexibility in habitat.

    Adapting to a changing environment

    The increase in the seal population has undoubtedly caused some growing pains, but adapting to evolving environmental conditions also creates new possibilities for communities on the Outer Cape.

    For example, the Swim for Life’s new course may make the event more accessible. With less risk of shark attack, “We’re hoping that there will actually be more swimmers this year,” Critchley said.

    Swim for Life in 2016
    Swim for Life organizers hope this year’s change of course will increase the number of swimmers. (Photo courtesy Provincetown Community Compact)

    This year, the Community Compact is also hoping to host a satellite swim, which would take place at the same time as the Provincetown event in Wellfleet’s Great Pond. The Compact is still awaiting approval from the Wellfleet Select Board for the alternate kettle pond swim.

    Aqua aerobics instructor Joan Nagle, who is helping to organize the satellite swim, said that she encouraged the women in her class to participate.

    “We’re very excited about the pond swim simply because I think we’re going to reach another part of the population that probably could have never done the one in the harbor,” Nagle said. In Provincetown Harbor swimmers must navigate boats, buoys, currents, and waves. But in Great Pond, “You don’t have all the variables — like cold water — which you do in the bay or ocean. You don’t even need a wetsuit.”

    The Swim for Life is a benefit for HIV/AIDS treatment, community well-being, and women’s health, and has raised over $6.5 million since its inception in 1988. Swimmer and boater registration begins at 7 a.m. at the Boatslip Resort on Saturday, Sept. 7, and the public is invited to welcome the swimmers to shore at the Boatslip starting at 8:30 a.m., followed by a brunch at 11.

     

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