Shooting Seals
In the summer, as I reported at the time, local sportsmen were observed shooting seals off the coast of North Wales, partly for wantonness, partly because the bodies when washed up proved of a certain value. This month the subject has been discussed by question and answer in Parliament. It seems that a campaign against the seals, even in the close season, was organized in Cornwall on behalf of the local fishermen. The shooting of seals is a common, if casual, event off the coast of Norfolk in the neighbourhood of Blakeney, where fishermen protest both against seal and tern and desire the destruction of both. Grey seals are numerous, perhaps they are increasing ; but, whatever is done, they should be protected in the close season, as the Editor of the Field urges in his comments on the answers given by the Minister of Agriculture. I have known of useless and cruel slaughter of seals old and young in other places, but trust that they find a more or less natural sanctuary under the high cliffs about St. David's Head and Ramsay Island, where for myself in the past I have most often watched them. On their behalf as well as of the peregrines and some seabirds and other cliff- nesting species of great rarity, let me repeat : what an ideal sanctuary Ramsay Island would make !
Previous page
