Council recommends increase in spiny dogfish quote

[amarshall]

I thought the worms came from herring? No?

pretty sure they're from seals

The presence of the cod worm devalues cod fillets in the marketplace, but what role does this organism play in nature? The known facts include these:

- Cod worm has a complex life cycle, involving the development of larval stages in a series of cold-blooded hosts, including cod, with the adult stage ultimately living and reproducing in the guts of seals, especially the grey seal. Worm eggs are shed into the water via seal feces. (Illustration below, right, reproduced from Bonner's "The Natural History of Seals" - click on image to enlarge.)

- According to Bonner, cod worms (and other similar species) are “universal in the pinnipeds” (seals) and apparently do not cause the animals any significant harm. Bonner reports seeing “grey seals in excellent condition and with ample blubber reserves whose stomachs contained more than two litres of large nematodes.” (Bonner, 1990, p 133)

- In the cod, the larvae encyst in the muscles, where they remain dormant until the fish is eaten by the final host, the seal. This does not appear to place any great stress on the cod. In the warm stomach of the seal the larvae emerge from the cysts, finally mature and produce eggs.

- “The mature worms produce huge quantities of eggs which are shed into the water in the feces of the seal and hatch within 10-60 days, depending on water temperature.” (Bonner, 1990)

[ElMar2530]

[LadyB]

Not to start another vicious flame war but I was recently talking to a year round Chatham commercial fisherman who said he sees absolutely zero correlation between bass populations and seals.

The seals are lazy and have no interest in bass or bass bait. They have enough skates to keep them happy for the rest of their lives. Chatham is booming with skates right now. Something has been taken out of the food chain that was eating the baby skates. The seals eat the adult skates like sandwiches. They'd rather export the pair trawlers that stripped the area clean of bait two years ago.

Where they do see the correlation and problem with seals is the infestation of worms in the cod off chatham. The cod are eating the seal shit and getting worms in much higher concentrations than other areas.

Just thought it was pretty interesting... I was of the same opinion too about the seals and bass.

amarshall,

I think he is right about the bass population not being effected by the seals. I am sure at certain times of the year seals could care less about bass. Having grown up fishing in Chatham I do know there are times they eat lots of bass. I have watched seals drive an entire school of bass up onto the hi bank and eat the belly's of the bass that do not not make it back into the water. If you fish in the the flats you see them chasing bass often early in the morning. I think there are just to many bass around for it to be an issue. The shell fishing may be effected more by the seals than anything else.

[LadyB]

Now if we could only get them to increase the SEAL quota! Not just a coincidence that the Stripers move through quicker because all the bait and themselves are getting eaten by the ever growing seal population! Time to start exporting Seal meat to China! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.

Here is something interesting I was told by a well known spotter pilot that was flying off the beach this past summer in Chatham. A seal was laying on its back chewing on an eel when a great white and this same seal spotted each other about the same time. The seal took off accross the water headed toward chatham with the great white in tow. After a brief chase the seal realized it may be in trouble trying to out run the shark over this distance and abruptly turned and swam directly toward the white. At the last second the seal did a hair pin turn just before reaching the white. Confusing the white, the seal was able to then gain enough distance by doing this a couple of times that it was able to make it into shore.

[aloop]

The shell fishing may be effected more by the seals than anything else.

The Seals using a Ribb rake?

[clt_capt]

So lemme see if I got this right... The Seals turned bin Laden into worm food, Now worms infect seals, causing seal shit to infect cod and herring? So now there are more spiny dogfish?