Eeerrrr, yes we do hunt Orcas on a very large scale, as my Son has just done a long project on it at School and brought home all the stats for it, which were shocking !!

Agreed. We are screwing up this planet and the only solutions we seem to come up with have devastating consequeses (sp) to the rest of the the planets inhabitants. I believe that the seal population would right itself due to food shortages. As said before, are we worried about cod to preserve them? No, we are worried there will not be enough for us to eat.

IMO if they have to kill the seal's and it appear's in thiscase they are the goverment has said they can cull 275.000
this year in 2 days Ithink.
They are only culling for fur, as each pelt is worth £25 shame on the seal pelt buyer's, I'm not complaining about them eating the cod it's not just cod they eat they eat all sort's of diffrent fish.
And then the fishermen cant catch wot's not there,
However if they have to kill them then at least they could kill them more humanely than to clobber them on the noggin till dead, also why kill the young surely if they killed the older bigger ones by the time the younger one's have grown the population might be more stable as the young don't all survive, killer whales take some, and what ever else prey's on them.
Shame on the Canadian goverment for allowing the inhumane killing of seal pup's yes they are very cute, I would never wear animal fur i'm a fair believer in animal fur keeping the animals warm not human's.
And shame on the fur wearer's, However I know why they have to be culled but they should make use of the whole seal not just it's fur,and dumping the bodies.

Id be interested if you have any info on that Malady, I very much like the orca, and am interested in them in the wild. I cant find any ifo on us hunting them on the net, do you have any links? Would appreciate it.
Dawn.

They want baby seals for their fur ZB, adults are no use.
Dawn.

Yes I saw that this morning on sky news, the babies are protected till the first molt, at 2 weeks old then they are fair game, shame is'nt it, but I understand why.

I think it's soooo sad but have to agree if they have got to do it,do it humanely,xxxxxxxxxx

Here is the link, just show's cute seal pup picture's.
http://news.sky.com/skynews/picture_...310451,00.html

I've also given a link to their Diet, which is not mainly Plankton, in fact everything else but !

Look at the bottom : Who's to Blame

http://gorp.away.com/gorp/activity/w..._species_4.htm

Look under threats to the species :
orca populations are also hunted in Japan, Indonesia, Greenland and the West Indies.

http://www.ifaw.org/ifaw/general/default.aspx?oid=93861


http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/wildfact...files/91.shtml
Diet
Orcas are top predators in the ocean. Their food preferences vary according to their locality. Prey includes marine mammals (other whales, seals, sea-lions, walruses), fish, squid and occasionally sea birds, sea-otters and penguins

A two minute Google brought this lot up, as I'm not dragging my son out of bed to ask for the links he has for his project

I didnt ask you to, which was why I asked if YOU had any links and not could you ask him.

From the links (thank you )
However, a lack of food and habitat, growing oceanic pollution, and human disturbance threaten this species more than any illegal hunting.

As I thought, human hunting of this species is not prevelant.

Also:
Threats to the Species
Although the global population of killer whales is not endangered, then goes onto blame heavy sea traffic and Whale watching for the most part. This species is protected under CITES.
Diet
Orcas are top predators in the ocean. Their food preferences vary according to their locality. Prey includes marine mammals (other whales, seals, sea-lions, walruses),
Yes absolutely, but because the term "Whales" were used and not a specific species, naturally the food for most Whale species is plankton and other micro organisms. Sperm Whales pricipally eat Squid, Minky Whales (most hunted) eat krill, small fish etc.. and most of the other species the same, so none of these are a threat to the Harp Seal, which was my point, as Stevie blamed humans for hunting Whales for a large Seal population and if we stopped hunting them would reduce the Seal numbers, clearly this is incorrect as the majority, in fact 99% of Whale species do NOT hunt Seal.