The Same Week The Alaska SeaLIfe Center Released Two Harbor Seals, Feds Targeted Them As Predators

COPPER RIVER COUNTRY JOURNAL 

Whiplash In The Waters Of Alaska 

Child interacting with marine wildlife at the Seward SeaLife Center.
(Journal archives, September 23rd, 2017) 

On Friday, September 25th, 2026 Alaska's seals were in the news. There were two very different tales about seals — one on KTUU and the other in the Anchorage Daily News. 

The first tale, on TV, was one of those typically upbeat SeaLife Center stories of success. Two harbor seals that had been found, sick and hungry, had just triumphantly wrapped up their summer rehabilitation program. They were now being released back into the ocean in the town of Kenai, to the applause and cheers of hundreds of bystanders who had come to watch. 

The KTUU story described how 'pilots, conservation workers and volunteers' had worked tirelessly to bring the weakened seals back to health. The TV story quoted a SeaLife worker watching the seals stagger back into the water: "My goodness, it is just a happy ending to a very busy summer season!" 

In the KTUU story, the worker added, "There was so much excitement... you could just hear like a cool sigh." According to the TV report, the seals had to prove they could hunt for fish on their own before they could be released back into the wild.

Everything was going to be good now for the seals... Or maybe not. 

A commercial salmon troller operating in Prince William Sound. (Journal archives, 2009) 

On that very same day, the Anchorage Daily News wrote another story about seals. This one was quite different. 

It was about the federal government. The White House has just issued an executive order that coincidentally mentions Alaska's seals. For the White House, seals are predators. They eat the fish that people want for themselves. 

The White House executive order's purpose is to "help saltwater anglers, offshore boaters and charter operators" and their thousands of jobs. The order has a section in it called "managing predators."  And the predators listed are sharks, sea lions... and seals. 

Given the tenor of this new story, the joyous release of two patched-up seals, carefully tended for months at the SeaLife  Center until they could waddle gingerly back into the cold Pacific to live a long and carefree life, seemed charmingly naive. 

Exactly what is going to happen now is unclear, but marine wildlife proponents fear that the administration's new order protecting salmon will not result in a good outcome for seals, sea lions or sharks.  The ADN wrote that the White House order is leading to fears that the government might "greenlight the killing of marine mammals by boat owners for interfering with commercial or recreational fishing operations."