Three seals with apparent bullet holes found along BC's coast
Editor’s Note: The photos in this story may be disturbing to some readers.
Dorrie Woodward was out earlier last week taking her dog for a walk along the beaches of Denman Island when she found three dead seals who appeared to be shot.
While the incident is shocking, Woodward, the chair of the Association for Denman Island Marine Stewards (ADIMS), says the situation is not unique.
“There have been a whole number of different calls by fishermen and by other groups to cull the seals … Because they’re getting to be fewer and fewer salmon and what they consider is too many seals,” she explained.
The seals Woodward found seem to have bullet shots in their head, she said.
ADIMS has reported the incident to Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) for an investigation.
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The organization has since put out a call on Facebook for others in the area to report similar incidents.
One person has since reported seeing three more seals near a Marine Park.
“One of them for sure, had been shot,” Woodward said. “She didn’t get close enough to some of the other seals to discover what had happened.”