Nordic Seals: Seal populations in the North-Atlantic, Artic Ocean and adjacent waters ...

• Main Authors: Viðarsson, Jónas R., Baldursson, Jónas, Traustason, Elvar, Laksá, Unn, Burke, Heather, Hinchcliffe, James, Pálsson, Jóhannes
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Zenodo 2024
• Subjects: sealing; seal hunting; seal management; seal predation; seal depredation; Atlantic Arctic; Atlantic-Arctic; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11655013; https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.11655013

This report is a part of the Nordic networking project Nordic Seals, which is supported by the Nordic Council of Ministers Working Group for Fisheries (AG Fisk). The project’s objectives are to gather, analyse and disseminate information on the populations of seals in the North-Atlantic, Arctic, and adjacent waters, and their environmental, social, and economic impacts. As several seal populations have grown in the North Atlantic, Arctic, and adjacent waters, they have become a controversial topic with fishermen and other stakeholders within seafood value chains who claim that they negatively affect commercial fish stocks, catch, product quality and economic viability of the fisheries. Many scientists and conservationists have on the other hand pointed out the lack of understanding of the functioning of seals in the ecosystem. Although seals are known to feed on commercial fish species, research on their effect on fish size and age distribution of prey populations, as well as stock size, is incomplete. More ...