Wednesday 4 April 2012

Grey Seals in Baltic Sea Consume as Much Fish as the Fishing Industry Catches, Research Finds

ScienceDaily (Apr. 2, 2012) — The grey seals in the Baltic Sea compete for fish with the fishing industry. The seals locally eat about the same quantities of cod, common whitefish, salmon, sea trout and eel as those taken by fishermen. This is the conclusion from research carried out at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.



Competing with the fishing industry
The grey seals in the Baltic Sea eat largely the same species and the same sizes of fish as those taken by the fishing industry. So even if the amount of fish eaten by seals is small relative to the total amount of fish caught in the Baltic Sea, the seals' dietary habits may have a major impact on the local availability of fish in the areas where they are common.
"If you compare the estimated consumption of fish by grey seals in their main range in Sweden, which is north of the Kalmar Sound, it is of the same order of magnitude as the total catch taken by Swedish professional and leisure fishermen in the same area," says scientist Karl Lundström.

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