Elizabeth Bradfield considers the return of the gray seal to Cape Cod
Writer/Naturalist Elizabeth Bradfield sat down with the Office of the Vice Provost for Research to discuss her work. Elizabeth received a Provost Research award in 2017 and presented the research involving the book she is writing, The Horsehead’s Return: Gray Seals Rewilding New England at the Provost Research awards: A Celebration of Scholarly Inquiry on November 15.
Office of the Vice Provost for Research:
So many people in Massachusetts vacation on the Cape! Since you live there, what do you know about it that we don’t?
Elizabeth Bradfield:
In this seashore that’s heavily utilized on Cape Cod by residents, fishers, and tourists, we’re seeing a rewilding of the marine population that is amazing. What I love about the Cape is that there are so many different experiences you can access in close proximity: we have the calm of the bay, the wildness of the ocean, the little ponds. The return of gray seals to our ecosystem in New England has been such a dramatic story. Watching it unfold focused my interest. I knew I wanted to write a book about this return, framed in the way that we read about the return of wolves to Yellowstone. A rewilding.
OVPR:
So, what’s the story?
EB:
Gray seals are one of the true seals, not eared seals, and up until the 1960 we bountied them and wiped them out in US waters. We bountied them because of “perceived competition with fisheries”. Seals are a convenient scapegoat: you see them and they spend time at the surface; they come ashore, unlike whales. So they’re seen as interfering with people who are trying to make a living on the sea; they’re a convenient target for any frustrations. We almost entirely extirpated them from Massachusetts waters.
OVPR:
What happened when all the seals in Massachusetts were wiped out?
EB:
In 1965, even before the 1972 federal Marine Mammal Protection Act, the state of Massachusetts protected grey seals. People realized what we had done and protected the few seals they had seen still around. And that protection worked. In the ocean there are no boundaries, no walls; the gray seal population in the Northwest Atlantic is an open population--from Canada to New York. The gray seal population has been rebuilding since protection, slower at first and then gaining momentum. Now there is a sizable population of grey seals that utilize Massachusetts waters and shores, as well as other areas of the Northwest Atlantic. That shift has become more apparent to people in the last ten years. It’s provoked a lot of different reactions, from the super enthusiastic to the ‘wow we better start that bounty again’.
OVPR:
What’s something you would change about the protection of these animals?
EB:
When I look at seals, I often see injured animals. Some of them have manmade injuries, whether it’s a propeller strike--which I don’t see often--or fairly often, you see seals with stuff around their necks. Anything from packing straps to monofilament fishing gear to “aerobe” frisbees. If the seal is small when it gets stuck and it grows, the material cuts into the skin, flesh, and even the esophagus. That’s a horrible way to die. Entanglement is a big problem for a lot of marine wildlife. I would love for us to use fishing gear that is not as lethal to the non-targeted species that get caught up in it. Biodegradable gear would be great, but it might drive up costs, so we need to modify fishing regulations in a way that does not unfairly burden fishers. Part of the problem is that people are simply unaware of what happens out at sea in the process of catching fish or even moving cargo from port to port. We have to do a lot of education about the unintended consequences of our actions at sea. We need to support the people who are catching our fish, too, the burden shouldn’t be on them to make this change. Consumers are driving these markets and should be part of the solutions.
OVPR:
Do you eat fish?
EB:
Yes, but there are fish that I avoid. I will not eat giant Bluefin tuna. I will not eat swordfish or “Chilean seabass” (Patagonian toothfish). I pay attention to the “Sustainable Seafood” guidelines put out by organizations like the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which are a helpful first step in thinking about ethical seafood choices. I won’t eat farmed salmon because the farming practices are harmful to wild stocks. Also the farmed fish are kind of gross.