SEATTLE - Residents in West Seattle are upset about a fisherman who witnesses say killed a seal just off Alki Beach.

At around 9 a.m. Saturday a small seal was caught in a fishing net near the beach. Nearby seals tried to help the entangled one escape.

Moments later a fishing boat arrived, and a witness caught the fisherman's actions on camera.

"He was pulling a net," said witness Primo Baccetti. "He pulled in 15 fish and a seal."

Primo Baccetti - who was fishing nearby - says he saw the fisherman manhandling and then killing the seal.

"Pulled the seal in the boat," Baccetti said. "It hit the inside of the boat. He managed to untangle that and throw it back in the water. But it also clanked on the railing of the boat. I did not see the seal appear after being put back in the water."

Witnesses photographed the fisherman pulling the seal out of the water.

"I can say what I saw today was not responsible fishing," said marine biologist Toni Frohoff, who was called in immediately.

She says a number of people had called federal and tribal officials about the nets for days and nothing was done. This is particularly upsetting for Frohoff because seals are federally protected.

"When we have an influx of pups out here this essentially becomes a nursery and an important nursing and breeding area for the seals," Frohoff said. "So in that sense that protection that they have in my thinking should be vigilantly increased."

The fisherman's identity is unknown.

"I felt bad about this because there were two seal pups that were about three weeks ago that were caught in a net right there on the boat ramp," Baccetti said.

According to the Federal Marine Mammal Protection Act, it is against the law to hunt, capture, kill, harass or otherwise disturb seals or any other marine mammal.