Who shot pregnant harbor seals? Thomas Sewid encouraged it.

Seal hater even buys ammo for seal killers

            DINES POINT, Washington––Who apparently cruised along the east shore of Whidbey Island,  Washington,  shotgunning pregnant harbor seals on or about January 24,  2023 is as yet officially unknown.

ANIMALS 24-7 spent much of January 26,  2023 examining the bloated,  eagle-pecked remains of harbor seal victims,  and looking for others reported by Whidbey Island residents but apparently already washed by the tides out into the Saratoga Passage between the island and the mainland.

We found no witnesses to the actual shooting,  but much outrage,  sorrow,  and consternation that it happened.

Facebook following growing by 1,000 a year

Who urged fishers,  crabbers,  and others to kill seals on Facebook just the day before,  meanwhile,  and twice in the preceding week,  is no mystery at all.

That was Kwakwaka’wakw First Nation commercial fisher Thomas Sewid,  of British Columbia,  Canada,  at the northern end of the Salish Sea,  which includes Puget Sound in the U.S. and the Georgia Strait in Canadian water.

Sewid,  founder of the so-called Pacific Balance Pinniped Society and parallel Pacific Balance Marine Management,  has been actively drumming up seal,  sea lion,  and sea otter hatred since 2017.

Sewid claims a Facebook following of 8,000,  up from 5,000 in 2018.

Promotes aggressive seal culling

Sewid urges the Canadian and British Columbia governments to promote aggressive commercial sealing along the Canadian Pacific coast,  even as the Atlantic Canada seal hunt drowns like a wounded harp seal due to lack of global demand for seal pelts.

As yet there seems to be little Canadian government interest in risking worldwide opposition to sealing on yet another front,  nor any hint of revitalized market demand for seal products and byproducts.

Sewid sends gift cards to seal shooters

That,  however,  has not kept Sewid from applying for $194,000 from the Canadian government on January 9,  2023 to conduct “research” sealing.

While repeatedly soliciting government funding in recent years,  Sewid encourages fellow fishers and crabbers,  especially First Nations tribal members,  to kill seals wherever and whenever they can.

Sewid even sends gift cards to buy ammunition for First Nations members who participate in the slaughter.

(See Frustrated fishers push to kill West Coast sea lions & seals and Why killing predators won’t bring back the salmon.)

“Must re-develop fur & other seal part industries”

Sewid on January 23,  2023 posted to Facebook,  “Salmon babies hatching 2023!  Seals will soon be sucking them up in the millions throughout the entire Pacific Northwest coast.

“Time to increase seal harvests,”  Sewid emphasized. “First Nations in British Columbia,  I have avenues of funding to help increase your pinniped harvests to help protect salmon.”

This came three days after Sewid claimed to “continually hear the cries from my fellow First Nations that their shellfish and crabs are now gone due to sea otters.”

Claims to hear the voice of God

“The seal,  sea lion and sea otter populations are far too high,”  Sewid alleged.  “We must re-develop our fur and other part industries derived from these creatures.

“It’s up to we humans with rifles to start bringing balance back into the animal kingdom as it was intended by The Creator in regards to seals,  sea lions and sea otters,”  Sewid said,  implying that somehow he hears the voice of God.

“Bullets helping to increase our First Nation and North American Indian seal,  sea lion and sea otter harvests I see is one of the best ways to help drive seafood prices down,”  Sewid continued.

“Get the lead flying”

“At this time it’s up to we indigenous to get the lead flying more.

“Pacific Balance Marine Management will not stop helping First Nations to acquire bullets to help increase our pinniped harvesting,”  Sewid pledged.  “Please keep the donations coming.

“Non-First Nations,”  Sewid added,  “we need your cooperation and support for this is something we all know must be done.

“U.S. residents,  remember your fish swim through British Columbia waters.  Your donations help protect U.S. salmon and steelhead one bullet at a time.”

Crime discovered

Late on January 25,  2023,  Becca Jaffe,  an almost lifelong resident of the Dines Point neighborhood,  came across the remains of two pregnant harbor seals while walking her dogs.

Jaffe,  daughter of a longtime local custom furniture maker and a longtime community midwife,  knows practically everyone in the neighborhood.

No one she knew would shoot harbor seals.  California sea lions,  orcas,  and grey whales are welcome seasonal visitors,  but harbor seals are a friendly presence all year long.

Jaffe called the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife,  who sent a warden to investigate.  Then she called the Orca Network,  who sent a veterinarian to do a necropsy on the remains.

What the necropsy found

The following morning Jaffe told Freeland dog-walker and pet sitter Sandra Nemetz,  the longtime ANIMALS 24-7 animal sitter when we occasionally must fly somewhere.

Sandra called us in tears.  We were there in fifteen minutes.  One of the pregnant seals had been shot through the head at close range from behind,  apparently with a shotgun-propelled deer slug.  The other pregnant seal had been gut-shot,  also from behind,  most likely while diving,  and must have died slowly.

We saw five bald eagles taking turns at pulling her entrails out through the entrance wound as we approached.

“We found a fetus in each of them”

We left to search for more harbor seal victims before the veterinarian arrived to do the necropsy.

Texted Jaffe later,  “We found a fetus in each of them,  and she confirmed one as clearly shot,  and the second one she said that probably was what happened as well,  but since she was not able to find any ballistics, it was harder to say.”

Not,  though,  if one has experience at examining wounds from firearms.  One needs a bullet or slug to identify the precise weapon used to kill a victim,  but not to do other forensics.

Recognizing wounds & suffering when we see them

Beth,  a former Miami Beach police officer,  and former veterinary technician,  has that experience.

So do I,  as former volunteer assistant to a Quebec deputy game warden.

Wounds in an illegally shot harbor seal,  an illegally shot deer,  and an illegally shot human being tend to look very much alike.

And the suffering of the victims is also very much the same.

Harrie Dines

Dines Point was named more than 100 years ago after settlers Harrie and Grace Dines.  Old photographs document that Harry Dines,  also a bootlegger,  did a lot of hunting and fishing.

So did others in his family.  We met and spoke with his great-nephew,  Rick Hastings,  who told us about Harry Dines and his other relatives.

Hastings himself grew up to become a commercial fisher,  operating his own boat for decades not only on Puget Sound but also as far north as Alaska.

“There are about 30,000 harbor seals in Puget Sound,”  Hastings said.  But even Hastings thought little of someone who would shoot harbor seals.

Return of Pacific whitesided dolphins

Thomas Sewid pretends to have an ecological pretext for killing seals,  sea lions,  and sea otters.  Sewid draws support from 78-year-old Carl Walters, professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries.

Walters was interviewed by medical doctor Liana Hwang for a December 26,  2022 Canadian Press article about the recent reappearance of Pacific whitesided dolphins in the northern Salish Sea.

First Nations people living along the Salish Sea ate Pacific whitesided dolphins,  either hunting them or scavenging those who became stranded,  for as long as 2,000 years,  according to archaeological findings,  before the dolphins vanished in the 19th century.

Scientist:  “Ecosystem is re-establishing itself”

Andrew Trites,  director of the Marine Mammal Research Unit at the University of British Columbia, a generation younger than Walters,  told Hwang that the return of Pacific whitesided dolphins was a positive development.

“Before this time,”  Trites explained,  “we had heavy culling of seals.  There was whaling. We’ve come through a period of removing marine mammals and trying to control nature. And now, since they’ve been protected,  I think the ecosystem is re-establishing itself and re-establishing a natural balance,  which is healthier overall,”  despite factors including global warming.

“Ugly,  nasty blubberballs”

Furiously responded Walters,  “It’s wrong to think things are coming into balance.  Okay, even if they are,  why do we have to accept that kind of balance?  Why do we have to accept a balance that has a top-heavy food web with a really large number of ugly,  nasty blubberballs [seals and sea lions] hauled out on the rocks?

“If it was up to me,” Walters said,  sounding much like Sewid,  “we’d knock them down to about 20% of their current level.  We’d accept a lower harvest for that population,  because the benefits to the fishery would be so much larger.”

No evidence that killing seals will help salmon

Contradicted Hwang,  “Trites said seal and sea lions numbers had been stable for 25 years, something inconsistent with overpopulation or a population out of balance. Present numbers are similar to what they were in the 1880s,  when Europeans first arrived,  Trites said.

Said Trites himself,  “I don’t see any evidence that if seals are removed,  you’re going to see more salmon.”

On the contrary,  Trites pointed out,  the greatest losses of juvenile salmon occur in the open ocean.

“Seals are not in the open ocean,” Trites reminded Hwang.  “Something else is out there,”  including many other salmon-eating fish species.

“Generational differences”

Trites observed “generational difference in values” regarding attitudes toward seal and sea lions,  wrote Hwang.

“Those who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s saw a world where humans dominated and we removed the marine mammals and that was just fine,” Trites told Hwang.

“What I see with the current generation of young scientists is they’re concerned about conservation. They’re concerned about keeping ecosystems healthy,  and it’s not about resource extraction.  In the end,  it’s just a difference of values,”  Trites assessed.

“Fisheries are not a tool”

Hwang also obtained a written response from the Canadian Department of Fisheries & Oceans to Sewid’s proposals to cull seals,  sea lions,  and sea otters.

Concluded Hwang,  “’Commercial fisheries are not to be used as a tool to control populations,’ the department said. ‘There is a high degree of scientific uncertainty regarding the extent of pinniped seal and sea lion predation on wild fish stocks.’”

But Sewid,  calling the Pacific whitesided dolphins an “invasive species,”  vowed to continue promoting seal,  sea lion,  and sea otter killing “come hell or high water.”

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