COURTENAY, B.C. -'I am not bloodthirsty," swears Larry Peterson, a retired schoolteacher, sport fisherman and self-described ecologist. He does not specifically loathe seals. But he knows that his promotion of a West Coast seal slaughter might seem "insensitive," at best.

It is certainly ill-timed: The destruction of seals will not find much favour, especially among those opposed to the commercial seal hunt now underway on Canada's Atlantic coast.

"It sounds mean, I know," says Mr. Peterson, standing along the banks of the Puntledge River on Vancouver Island, an hour's drive north of Nanaimo. "But we need to remove these animals -- take them out, lethally."

It's the only solution -- and the lesser evil -- to a long-standing problem, he insists.

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