Slippery sea dogs

As the son of a Glaswegian, I am a regular reader and enjoyed Michael Wigan’s recent piece on fishing huts as debating chambers. [December 2021 edition] Many similar discussions are taking place here in New England in the face of declining game fish catches.

I would take issue with the common vilification of seals, embraced on both sides of the Atlantic, as the cause of fishers’ ills. A few hundred years ago both our coasts were thick with seals, and even thicker with fish. The former didn’t make much of a dent. The causes of fish stock deletion have far more to do with commercial overfishing, environmental degradation and the effects of global warming. Let’s leave the sea dogs be. Dr Duncan M. Kuhn, Boston, Mass, USA