Just my thoughts...
Seals, sea lions, sea dogs, are not vegetarians. The more they multiply, the more they eat, right?
What a concept...
Now let's replace the sea dogs with sea cats...a step further, the sea cats with land cats and dogs.
Coyotes attack our household pets. Also, they have been known to attack children. In pursuit of food, they will go after anything to quench their appetite. Let's not hurt them or abuse them based on the same theory.
Now to larger cats...mountain lions. When they attack live stock, DFG, upon proof, will allow the rancher to take any measure necessary to protect his stock, thus the farmer brings in goats, which still get decimated.
So, based on this reasoning, we are to allow seals, sea lions full reign, while our land animals who have the potential to cause harm to humans, are fair game.
Unless I am missing something, each of these predators have an impact on our food chain and/or threaten our safety.
Is it safe to assume that upon the first confrontation with a human and a sea lion, they will be then categorized in the same manner as the coyote and mountain lion?
After all, we are all in search of food...