Aggressive Sonoma Elephant Seal- Letter to the Editor

Editor—I was very pleased with the reporting by Mr. McHugh on the aggressive Sonoma elephant seal, especially his mention of the fact that the problem wouldn’t exist in a natural environment. While this case is interesting, however, it is symptomatic of a larger and more significant problem: the often overlapping spheres of man and animal in the ocean.

Though we often see it as a bottomless sink for our undesirables, the ocean is clearly under heavy strain, and if we wait to address it we may be too late. The elephant seal in this case may be responding to environmental stimuli, like chemicals in polluted runoff or sonar signals, but either way the fact is that these pollutants are wreaking havoc in natural ecosystems. Let’s focus on the problems, and not just try to treat the symptoms.