Sir, - During a recent holiday on Inishbofin, Co Galway, we were disgusted to see a fisherman in the illegal act of shooting a seal swimming peacefully in an isolated cove. According to government and wildlife agencies, such incidents are not uncommon along the west coast.
This unofficial culling of seals is a brutal irrelevance to the real problems of the Irish fishing industry, such as overwhelming competition from multinational companies, which over-fish so relentlessly throughout the world's oceans, devastating the sea bed with their apocalyptic trawling practices. How long would it take a seal to eat the number of fish hauled up in one catch by a big ship?
Moreover, wild seals are a big attraction for the hosts of tourists which descend on the west of Ireland every year. Given that tourism is such a huge contributor to the Irish economy (far surpassing fishing!) and that communities such as Inishbofin depend on it for survival, it is in the fishermen's own self-interest to protect wild seals rather than kill them. A live seal is worth its weight in gold, a dead seal perhaps the price of a few pounds of fish. By shooting seals fishermen are helping to destroy the economic viability of their own communities.
We urge anybody who is concerned about the plight of seals to contact the Irish Seal Sanctuary, Garristown, Co Dublin. - Yours, etc., STEVEN & LESLEY WISE,
Lambeg,
Co Antrim.