Sea lions are they to be blamed on the loss of fish stocks?

I’m not a marine biologist nor a fisherman; I’m a person who is a bit skeptical about blaming one species for the decline of another species, especially when the top predators are going after the same food source while one is making a living on it. When the top predator (humans) species make a living on the food source they do not like competition. Competition can be from other fishers, sport or commercial; it could be killer whales, or seals, and over the years Killer whales and Seals have been killed by fisherman, fishing boats have been used as weapons to run into killer whales, and guns to shoot seals. Seals are often intentionally killed by fishermen who erroneously believe they are responsible for reduced fish stocks caused by overfishing, pollution and habitat destruction.

To blame the seals and seal lions for the loose of the fishing industry on the coast of BC, is a lame attempt at the real problems. Over the last 50 years we have seen a steady loss in fish stocks due to overfishing, the loss of habitat due to logging, and pollution is also part of the problem and more importantly the real reason salmon stocks are on the decline. Other factors could be the warming of the oceans,

The simple fact is, stocks are in wide decline because we have been killing far too many salmon for far too long. In 1913, the year of the last great run in the Fraser, an estimated 38 million sockeye returned. But 32 million of those fish were killed and put in cans. Four years later, when the run crashed to just eight million sockeye, the government allowed a catch of more than 7.3 million fish.
Since then the government has typically allowed 40 to 70 per cent of any given run to be taken in nets.
Not only has overfishing hurt the environment, but it has also brought the commercial fleet to its knees and left native villages impoverished.

Let’s look at some statistics, seal populations are at an extreme high and salmon are at an extreme low and on the verge of collapsing. If seals and sea lions main food diet consisted of salmon stocks, we should see a decline in the seals and sea lions population or unless they are on the verge of a collapse. More likely is that their diet is much more varied than we once thought and salmon only plays a small part in the diet of seals and sea lions.

Our oceans are a complex ecosystem one that we are just starting to understand.
When one species of animal dies especially when that species is a key species it has domino effect on other species in the ecosystem. We will see the decline of the coastal grizzly whose diet is made up of spawning salmon. Grizzly bears are starving on some rivers already. Killer whales are abandoning coastal regions because of a lack of Chinook.

There is hope, not all fisherman blame the decline of fish stocks on the seals and seal lions, and with the government intervention like in the States, there is no commercial fisheries this year in California, Oregon and Washington. BC and Alaska should be next.

That means ending the commercial fishery at sea. Shut it down and get government emergency funding to assist fishermen in the way forest workers are being helped through the pine-beetle infestation.

In rivers, only live traps should be used, such as beach seines, weirs and fish wheels, so that wild fish can be released while surplus hatchery stocks are retained.

All sports fishing should be restricted to catch-and-release.

Stop the commercial sale of salmon by native communities.

Only then should we see the return of millions of salmon to the river systems. With out tough measures, salmon won’t survive and with a key species gone we will see the decline in other species like coastal grizzly bears and killer whales.

Here is a great write up on the Fraser river.

Baby Dakota born Dec 18,2008

Our Son Dakota Lee Watson was born Dec 18,2008 at 8:59 AM. Proud parents David Lee Watson, Stacey Lavigne and Big sister Sophia. Our son and little brother was just under 9 pounds.

Sophia and Dakota

brother & sister

Posted via Pixelpipe.

Dakota

born 8:59 am

Posted via Pixelpipe.

Stacey

getting ready for baby

Posted via Pixelpipe.

Stacey doing stress test

stress test

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Some galaxy

Looks cool

sunset

testing pixelpipe to upload straight to my blog. It seemed to work very well.

sunset

sunset

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Night time photography

In the winter months here in Prince Rupert I find it hard to photography wildlife, sure I could photograph the 300 or 400 deer that wonder the city, but houses and cars take away from the photo.. so the last few years my camera’s gathers dust, my fingers get restless and start to twitch out like a junky needing a fix.
So this year I have decided to try some new things, branch out if you will. With the help of my friend Chad Graham who’s wisdom and guideness has helped in my new endeavor.

Night photography, I alsways enjoyed looking at other photographers work seeing the night sky brought to life in a photograph. Why had I not tried this sooner, I have no idea. For the last 2 nights I have gone out and did some photography. I have to admit I was not ready for the cold I felt on my fingers and face, yes I was underdressed, a mistake I would not make again after the first night.  what seemed to be a eternity, was only a few hours. I set my exposure to 30 sec, F stop down to 3.5 iso 200 and started my adventure in night time photography. Some of my moon shots were fest shutter speeds.

What I learned.

1.first dress appropriately to the weather, if your going to be out side for long periods of time, you need to stay warm. other wise you may get frustrated and leave early.

2. Bring a thermos of hot chocolate, or any other hot beverage too keep you warm on the inside.

3. A tripod is a must, due not try and take a long exposure of the night sky with out one. unless you are trying to paint with lights.

4. Bring a small light with you, too see the buttons and other setting on your camera.

5. For long exposure times you will need a cable trigger.

6. Bring a friend along, it makes the time go faster plus you get to share the experience.

7. Get out of the city, the lights from the city will make seeing the night sky near impossible to see.

8. Be aware of your surroundings you don’t want to fall in to a hole, or trip over a rock, knocking down your camera and smashing your new lens.

9. Bring your camera manual, unless you now your camera inside out.

10. Have fun…..

Killer Whales or Orca Killer Whales

The Killer Whale (Orcinus Orcais) the largest member of the dolphin family and they tend to be found in groups called pods, a group of related families. Occasionally two or more pods join together temporarily and can consist of up to 100 whales.

There are three different populations of Orcas encountered along the West coast of North America. These three groups appear to be genetically different and do not interact socially–in fact, observed behaviors indicate that they normally avoid contact with each other.

Offshore, Resident and Transient, I have been lucky enough to photograph Resident and Transient Orca Killer Whales.

The resident population is comprised of groups of genetically related clans or extended family groups of Orcas. These clans have established territories and fairly predictable patterns of movement within those territories. They travel in pods and sub-pods, often groups of up to 20 whales or more with individuals scattered over a wide area.

Transients, on the other hand, have neither established territories nor predictable patterns of movement. They swim in small groups of two to five or six, usually in close physical proximity.

Researchers have recently had several encounters with the third known West Coast Orca population, currently labeled the “offshore”. These whales have been encountered primarily in the open ocean, and in large groups of 30 to 60.

One of the primary reasons residents, transients, and off shores exhibit different behaviors is that their diets are very different. Residents feed almost exclusively on fish, and exhibit a strong preference for salmon. At the moment it is believed that the off shores are exclusively fish eaters as well, but, given the relatively small number of encounters with the off shores, it can’t be said with certainty.

Transient whales feed primarily on marine mammals. Transients observed in waters of B.C. and Washington State have been seen preying on seals, sea lions, dolphins, porpoises, and other species of whales. Their diet, however, isn’t strictly limited to marine mammals. Transient killer whales have also been observed eating sea birds, and the stomach of a dead transient whale recovered up in Alaska contained the remains of a moose. Apparently the moose chose the wrong moment to swim from one Alaskan island to another–something that moose, deer and other land animals frequently do.

From the website whalesbc

Here are some photos I have taken Of Killer whales.

word play

I was assigned to a last minute program to restructure an aperture whose transparent material has become disorganized by contact with an Oblate spheroid whose errant vector I initiated.

Swimming with Wild Seals!!

Swimming with Wild Seals!!
In the early Spring, I seen a Photograph taken by a locally photographer, In that photo was a child holding out his hand and below his hand was the ocean, and in that ocean was a wild seal that came out to smell the child’s hand. I was amazed and I had to see this phenomenon for myself. It took me a few weeks to see this for myself.
The first week I went to the docks; People were coming down to the dock with totes full of left over salmon heads and Bones from doing there salmon canning. Dumping the unusable portions is done every year by the locals, some use it as fertilizers but most people just dump it out. While I was there a few seals swam around the dock picking the choice parts and going back to deeper water. I was able to get a few photos, But not the photo I wanted.

The following week was much of the same. But on the third week I went down to the Docks with my wife and a fellow photographer, I got my shots and video I wanted.

We were told by some locals, to splash the water to bring the seals in closer. As we put our hands into the cold ocean and started to splash around a few seals popped their heads out a hundred feet out, and looked at our general direction. They dove in to the ocean and a few minutes latter a Seal popped up a few feet from our hands. In a matter of an Hour we had 8 seals coming up and checking us out..

Here are the Pictures and video Of that Day.

Bald Eagle Photographs

I get asked all the time Dude were do you photograph all those eagles I see On Flickr. Well the short answer is Prince Rupert, BC Canada on the water front. I have been photographing Eagles and Other large animals for 4 years, Starting out with a Canon Rebel XT then the Canon Rebel XTI and now with a Canon EOS MARK II. I have a 400 mm lens but I don’t need to shoot at the focal length.

The best time to photograph Eagles is in the spring before the Salmon run up the different river systems. there can be a few hundred Eagles in the trees surrounding the water front. It does not take big fancy camera gear to get the perfect shot, but it sure does help.

here are some photos of Eagles I have taken over the years.. I hope you Enjoy them…

For More Eagle Photos check it out here.