Salmon Fishers Demand a Seal Cull

Seals are a protected species in Ireland, and some fishermen blame them and even cormorants and other birds for a decline in salmon populations. Salmon swim the oceans and then return to the rivers where their own lives began to reproduce. There, humans and other predators wait to pick off the fish. Ecologists dismiss fishermen’s complaints, pointing to over-fishing by humans as the leading contributor to declining populations of favorite species like salmon. Ireland’s human population has expanded over the past century, from 3.2 million in 1901 to more than 4.2 million today. The ecology of any location depends on intricate and interdependent relationships of many species. Dominant predators destroy their prey, upsetting the balance and the future of their own food supply. – YaleGlobal