Harbour seals are elite of their species

Re: “Fish fly for harbour seals at wharf despite new signs banning feeding,” April 13. Being from the Prairies, we love coming to the coast. I’ve been doing it for more than 40 years, since I was a boy and now with my boy.

I can support the statements that the human-animal interaction referenced in the article has been going on with populations here in all that time and in every community we’ve visited. I can add confidently that it has been going on for centuries all over this globe between many species and civilizations.

In some areas, it’s done out of survival, to keep the animals feeding on other nonhuman animals so as to avoid wild animals turning to feed on humans.

On the notion it’s bad for the animals, consider that it’s normal or even evolved animal behaviour (wild and civilized) to find ways to sustain life without the need for “natural foraging behaviour.” It doesn’t mean that ability is lost. In fact, I’ve come to learn that when we have visited and found no seals feeding from the humans; it is when the herring are running — after all, who doesn’t prefer a fresh meal over one processed?

Let’s take that evolution concept a little further: Since days of the Romans, and even before, “human handheld feeding” has been seen as a luxurious experience. When one has the ability to command such behaviour as to be willingly fed by others, one has reached the pinnacle of existence. Way to go harbour seals, you are the elite of your species. Bryan K. Boechler Calgary