Seal escorted through Kensington causing anglers headaches

By Jim Brown

FOR THE SOU’WESTER

INDIAN RIVER, P.E.I. - Leo Arsenault has been fishing at the bridge in Indian River for a good many of his 73 years and he's usually managed to catch a brace of decent sized sea trout.

Not this spring.

But it's not bad luck.

He blames the presence of large fish-eating mammal that doesn't obey provincial fishing laws, routinely swimming under the bridge to get at columns of fish at the entrance to a fish ladder.

"Of all the stupid places to put a seal," mused Arsenault.

It was through the efforts of Kensington residents, police and fisheries officers that a seal pup, traveling through the small community in the dead of winter, was taken to the area's only open water.

Unfortunately, it appears this good deed brought unintended consequences.

The trout have disappeared this spring and so have the smelt, said Arsenault.

"The smelt used to be here, just black," he said, pointing to the entrance to the fish ladder, where anglers aren't allowed to drop a line.

Arsenault has called provincial fisheries officers to move the seal somewhere else - all to no avail.

"You'd come down here and get your catch and now you don't get any," said Arsenault.

According to Kensington Police chief Lewie Sutherland the seal has doubled in size since he and other officials provided an escort in late December.

Mayor Barry Campbell, who helped fisheries officials corral the seal for transport by truck to Indian River, hadn't heard anything about its fate until just recently.

"I'm relieved to see he's alive," said Campbell, adding it was a shame it was causing some grief for anglers by eating fish.

"But that's what seals do," said Campbell.

Sutherland rejected any thought of destroying it last winter.

The seal is apparently in the pink of health these days.

"He's probably about six feet long, he's not a pup," said Sutherland.

The chief has fielded several calls from angry anglers, wondering why a seal is allowed to poach trout they aren't allowed to catch.

"He's also a non-resident angler," quipped Sutherland.

"I watched him there the other day, he was going like crazy in and out."

But Sutherland wishes the seal would take its' leave and return to its kind in the ocean.

"It's time the seal moved out," he said.



(Jim Brown is a journalist with Transcontinental Media’s Journal Pioneer newspaper and a contributor to the Sou’Wester.)