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A baby seal in the seal station Friedrichskoog (archive picture)
Photo: A3828 Christian Hager / dpa
There are more gray seals in northwest Germany.
The Wadden Sea population, in which the number of young animals born is determined, has grown by an average of 11 percent per year over the past five years.
The Wadden Sea Secretariat in Wilhelmshaven presented the results of a current census on Monday.
In the same period, the number of gray seals counted during the change of fur also increased - with an average growth rate of 13 percent.
Regional differences would have to be investigated further in the next few years, wrote the Wadden Sea Secretariat.
Few young animals in Schleswig-Holstein and Denmark
Gray seals are born in the early winter months. In the most recent survey, a total of 1927 young animals were counted, 201 more than in the previous year. The largest increases in the numbers were observed in Lower Saxony (16 percent) and Helgoland (12 percent). In the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea and Denmark, on the other hand, only one and three young animals were sighted. With 1026 animals counted, the majority of marine mammals are still born in the Dutch Wadden Sea, but the number of births there is lower than in the period 2018 to 2019 (1062 young animals).
Gray seals are the largest predator in Germany. Bulls up to 2.3 meters in length can weigh over 300 kilograms. Females grow up to two meters long and weigh up to 185 kilograms. Gray seals were numerous before the Middle Ages, but they are believed to have disappeared due to excessive hunting. An adult gray seal eats up to six kilograms of fish and other marine animals every day.
In the second half of the 20th century the animals returned to the Wadden Sea.
In 2021, a total of 9069 gray seals were counted in the North Sea.
There are also gray seals in the Baltic Sea again.
There, experts from the Stralsund Marine Science Museum assume that there are currently 60 to 80 animals living on the coast of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
Fishermen fear for herring catch - and for their nets.
Commercial set net fishermen in coastal waters therefore get 50 to 80 percent of the proven damage caused by feeding and net damage from the land.
chs / dpa