With tourist season just starting in Victoria some people are disappointed the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority has banned the feeding of Seals at Fisherman's wharf.
"Sammy" the one-eyed Seal, a tourist favourite for some time, is drawing particular concern and attention.
Sammy has his own Facebook page and a new one titled "Save Sammy" has popped up.
People are concerned the one-eyed tourist star attraction may not be able to fend for himself if people stop feeding him.
But there is good news for Sammy according to Biologist John Calambokidis. "Harbour Seals heavily use their whisker's to sense the turbulence from fish and that's a lot of how they hunt. So even if they were completely blind they can still find food and even raise pups."
Calambokidis, Research Biologist & co-founder, Cascadia Research Collective in Olympia, Washington, says it's important to keep the "wild" in wildlife. "Wildlife are called wildlife for a reason that wild part of wildlife is the key thing we want to preserve and the more we try to turn wildlife into a zoo like trained animal setting I think that is to the long term detriment of wildlife.
The Harbour authority says they made the move in order to ensure public safety.