Specialist Identifies Potential Reason Behind Seal Demises
Off the eastern shores of Rügen and the Greifswalder Bodden, a staggering 26 deceased harbor seals have been unearthed recently. The German Maritime Museum in Stralsund has carried out postmortems on three of these creatures. Judith Denkinger, the museum's marine mammal collection curator, revealed that some animals showed signs of drowning, as water was discovered within their lungs.
Larger than average, weighing approximately 150 kilograms, and measuring around two meters in length, these seals were well-fed and in good health. Denkinger didn't dismiss the notion that they may have gotten entangled in fishing nets, which could have prevented their escape. As a result, the museum lodged a complaint against unidentified individuals. Officials from the Water Police confirmed that they had received this complaint, suggesting a potential breach of the Animal Protection Act.
Most of the carcasses were retrieved along Rügen's coastline between Lobbe and Thiessow since late September, with five seals discovered near a fishing net. In the Greifswalder Bodden, hundreds of seals are typically present. Last year, a total of 43 harbor seal fatalities were recorded in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
Residing in the Baltic Sea, harbor seals are closely related to the common seal and are highly protected by law. In the 20th century, their numbers in the Baltic Sea dwindled close to extinction. Due to conservation initiatives, their population has been growing since the 1980s. As per the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), there are currently around 42,000 harbor seals in the Baltic Sea, still well below the original population count of approximately 100,000 animals.
As the apex predator in Germany, harbor seals play a vital role in the ecosystem.
The European Union has implemented strict regulations to protect harbor seals due to their dwindling population in the 20th century. Investigations are ongoing to determine the cause of the recent mass seal deaths off the coast of Rügen, as the German Maritime Museum has lodged a complaint against unidentified individuals.
