Five Years of the HELCOM SEAL Expert Group:

Protecting the Seals in the Baltic 

 

Marine mammals in the Baltic Sea are all threatened yet important and valuable components of the ecosystem. Continued survival and well-being of them all – the grey seal (Halichoerus grypus), the ringed seal (Pusa hispida), the harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) and the harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) – are inextricably linked to, and dependent on, the quality of the marine environment.

 

Due to intensive hunting and pollution by organochlorides during the 20th century, the populations of all seal species in the Baltic Sea were alarmingly low in the 1970s and 1980s. The population declines have now been reversed, except for the ringed seals in the Southwestern Archipelago Sea, Gulf of Finland and Gulf of Riga, and the Baltic population of grey seals today is much stronger than it was recently. Despite this, all seal species of the Baltic Sea still remain on the HELCOM list of threatened and declining species. 

The HELCOM Recommendation 27-28/2 on conservation of seals in the Baltic Sea area from 2006 states the long-term objectives for the management of Baltic seals, such as a natural abundance and distribution of seals, and a health status that ensures their future existence. The Baltic Sea Action Plan further stipulates that by 2015, improved conservation status of species included in the HELCOM lists of threatened and/or declining species and habitats of the Baltic Sea area should be achieved. Furthermore, by 2015 the by-catch of harbour porpoise, seals, water birds and non-target fish species will be significantly reduced with the aim to reach by-catch rates close to zero.

 

To ensure making these commitments reality, the HELCOM SEAL Expert Group was established in 2006 and it has been meeting annually ever since. The group consists of marine mammal experts and managers from the HELCOM Contracting Parties. The Expert Group works in three teams: population size, distribution, and health teams.

 

The main aims of HELCOM SEAL are to define limit reference and target levels for seal population size, distribution and health in the Baltic, to help in harmonizing National Management Plans for cross-boundary management, to produce guidelines for exemptions from these management plans, and to evaluate seal movements and distribution in order to assist countries to establish protected areas for seals across the Baltic Sea.

 

The SEAL Expert Group has so far achieved a very good expert cooperation network for marine mammal conservation and management around the Baltic Sea. However, defining the limit reference and target levels has been a challenge and so far most progress has been achieved in the SEAL health team with the publication of indicator fact sheets for the health of both grey seal and ringed seal.

Mr. Arne Bjørge, Institute of Marine Research in Norway, chaired the HELCOM Seal Expert Group between 2007 and 2011. He has a wide experience in marine mammals and is also the chair of the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission (IWC). In his farewell address to the Group he said that  “I have been very pleased to see the good progress of work in the health team of HELCOM SEAL and the work carried out in Sweden to mitigate seal-fishery interactions, but I have been disappointed of the lack of progress in restoration of habitats, especially of old haul out sites for grey seals, in the Southern Baltic Sea”.

A lot of work remains ahead the SEAL crew will need to tackle. This work will be carried out under  the lead of the new Chair Mr. Anders Galatius, Denmark, and with the new team leaders: Mr. Olle Karlsson, Sweden (seal distribution team), Mr. Markus Ahola, Finland (population team) and Ms. Ursula Siebert, Germany (health team).