July 11, 2013 — With fewer fish and more regulations, you'd think it couldn't get much tougher for fishermen. But now they're also facing growing competition- not from other fishermen- but from federally protected seals.
Seals are big business these days on Cape Cod. Tour boats shuttle visitors to watch as the seals sun themselves on Monomoy Island south of Chatham. At the Chatham Fish Pier, they bob their heads out of the water with an almost human-like quality, playfully swim here and there as fishermen unload their catch.
But the cuteness factor is lost on local fishermen like Nick Muto. He said he now has to compete with seals for fish, and it’s the seals who have a clear advantage.
"Fishermen feel we’re being blamed for a lot of the decline of the codfish population," he said. "But in essence, in just the Cape Cod area alone, there’s 14,000 unregulated fishermen – being, the seal population."
Muto’s statistic may actually be a bit low. Current estimates place the number of seals around Cape Cod at more than 15,000 – almost triple the number from 1999. They gravitate to places like Monomoy because it’s isolated, and ideally suited to raising pups. The seals are here in big numbers. They’re here to stay. And these wily predators have gotten very good at competing with local fishermen for dwindling numbers of fish.
Read the full story at WGBH News
All this week WGBH News is putting a focus on the tradeoffs in our waters, in our series made in partnership with WCAI on Cape Cod: The Long Haul: The Future of New England's Fisheries.