Yes, I certainly agree with that statement. Seals will eat anything in the ocean. Depending on seasonality, meaning when certain species are available, they will consume that species. Depending on the numbers of seals, the impact on the particular population can be significant.
If I refer to DFO science and the stomach sampling program they had in Newfoundland and Labrador for at least 25 years, they used the same sealers in the same communities at the same time of year. What makes that interesting is that the stomach sampling was done in the winter months, from inshore vessels. They went up the northeast coast to Newfoundland and places like La Scie, and they collected stomach samples. When they looked in those seal stomachs—harp seals predominately—they didn't find a lot of caplan or cod. Now, why didn't they find a lot of caplan or cod during that time of the year? They simply weren't there.
I will use an analogy that was used with the Atlantic seal science task team, which Mr. Vascotto was part of. If we were to sample a black bear stomach in the spring of the year, after they came out of hibernation, would we find blueberries in their stomach? No. The same is true for the large part of the seal stomach samples that have been done in Newfoundland—there was little caplan or cod.