So here we’re having this innocent discussion about clubbing and painting baby seals, and you have to start talking about polar bears’ poles. I swear, some people can find a dirty meaning in anything. :o
So many physics nerds deserve beatings in this thread, but which one to go after? It’s like trying to choose which baby seal to kill.
Yep, but the hides are worthless and they taste strange…
Si
So this baby seal walks into a club…
IIRC the Canadian seal hunt takes place entirely on the ice pack in the Gulf of St Lawrence and off the coast of Newfoundland. I don’t think there are many polar bears in these regions. Note that the hunting of “whitecoat” seals was banned in 1987, so this would not be a current tactic.
Well, the tactic being current or not would depend on whether or not anybody illegally hunted the whitecoated ones or not. Dunno how often someone goes after a seal they’re nto supposed to, or how effective the Canadian gov’t is at stopping someone from doing that.
The worst paint pattern to put on a seal, I guess, would be orange stripes.
Ions, tigers, bears… oh, my.
Hmm… just had an idea for a new art form… seal murals!
That was an excuse given so that people in the depressed areas of Atlantic Canada could feel good about clubbing the seals again. The fact is that the area has been over fished and cod is considered commercially extinct in that area (at least it was a few years ago).
These days, the polar bears are in much greater danger than the seals. I don’t feel bad about helping them out.
FRDE suggests the fishermen are killing seal pups to cut down competition for the fish. If that’s true, wouldn’t the fishermen kill the painted seals, too? The last figure I heard for pelts was $50 a pup. Sealskin has gone out of fashion in most places, but the Russians are still clamoring for them.
If the concern is that painting baby seals will make them stand out to predators long-term, maybe the answer is a short-term dye timed to cover the hunting season.
There is a pink dye used by homeowners and public gardens to deter conifer theft around Xmas time. The idea is that sleazebags who are tempted to cut down someone else’s tree aren’t likely to do it if it’s dyed an unattractive color*. The dye washes off over a period of weeks/months.
Or Greenpeace could spray-paint the polar bears and make them more visible to the seals. Getting close enough to do this might pose a problem. :dubious:
*On the other hand, the use of pink dye could encourage thieves who are also Mary Kay saleswomen.
I don’t see why one should stop with seals. After all ducks and geese are hunted far more heavily than seals… And doesn’t everybody look forward to painting the down red?
And result in the bears getting dye-polar disorder.
Bahahaha… I’m glad to see that the Dopers can take a semi-serious question, and turn it into punning marathon.
Just don’t pelt us with anything!
I understand that different animals see colors using different mechanisms in the eye. Granted that, I’m having great trouble understanding how this would work. Cite?
No cite, but the bears obviously use a polar-eyes vision system.
headdesk
And sometimes see double.
They should give the seals really whacky paint jobs like these guys.
[sub]y’know, sealed with a KISS… [/sub]