The Tralee Blog

What I found today has not really much to do with Tralee, or has it? One of Kerry’s County Councillors (Breandan MacGearailt) is cited by Radio Kerry with the following disturbing quote:

 “Fianna Fail Councillor calls for legal seal cull
A Fianna Fail County Councillor believes that a legal cull of the seal population is needed to protect fishing stocks around the coast. Breandan MacGearailt says he understands the vexation of people towards, what he describes as “non-initiatives taken by government departments”. No one was prosecuted after a large number of seals were beaten to death on Beginish Island three years ago. Cllr MacGearailt is asking why the Department of Environment has refused to grant a request for a fresh seal cull. Cllr MacGearailt says he understands the concerns of the fishing community who feel their livelihoods are constantly under threat.”

I’m not sure whether this guy knows what such a step could mean for the tourism in Kerry and in fact for Ireland as a whole. People from abroad come to Ireland for one reason: to enjoy its nature and wildlife - and marine mammals are without any doubt a very important if not the most important part of that for many. So this is indeed quite disturbing, and that’s not only because it most likely isn’t going to work (I think the industrial fishery is the real problem for the fish stocks, not the seals) but because even if I would be wrong and the number of fish should increase the damage done to the tourism would be much, much greater than the combined turnover of all fishermen in the country. So as a councillor of one of the many counties which have to rely heavily on tourism he should really know better…

Update: I just spoke with Sarah from the Irish Seal Sanctuary, she also finds the news quite worrying and is going to forward it for further assessment. So what do you think about this idea?