A pair of seals, mother and child, have taken up residence in the canals of Den Helder in the Netherlands and gobbling up the fish with which a local fishing club stocks the canal each year. The club is asking officials to evict the seals to the open sea.
The club holds fishing competitions for local children several times a year, and spends about €4,000 a year to stock the inland waters, but the seals are ahead of them. “We have had this problem for years. The seals are scoffing our fish and there is nothing left for the children who enter the competitions,” a club official told local broadcasters.
The animals eat some four kilos of fish a day but also take little nibbles, another habit the anglers are annoyed about. “They take a bite and go on to the next fish,” they say.
Officials of a local seal rescue center say they aren’t really interested: they say it’s not unusual for seals to migrate to canals and other inland waters, and “As long as they are healthy, we see no reason to move them.”
