The Baikal seal is threatened with layoffs – Newspaper Kommersant No. 61 (7506) of 04/10/2023

The government has instructed scientists and regional authorities to study the issue of forcibly reducing the population of the Baikal seal – in other words, shooting it. This is justified by the version that the breeding seal interferes with the industrial production of the Baikal omul. Scientists and industry experts confirm that the seal population has grown too much in the past few years. However, for the mass shooting of seals, there is currently no infrastructure associated with the processing and marketing of carcasses. In addition, scientists recall the complexity of the lake’s ecosystem and fear that in the event of forced regulation of the population, the seal itself may be under the threat of extinction.

On April 4, Deputy Prime Minister Victoria Abramchenko approved a list of instructions following a meeting of the government commission on the protection of Lake Baikal. Some of them relate to the topic of resuming industrial and recreational fishing on Lake Baikal, which requires increasing the reproduction of the Baikal omul. “Until May 25, 2023, analyze the possible negative consequences of an increase in the number of the Baikal seal and consider the need and mechanisms for regulating its number,” the “fishing” list of instructions says. The list of recipients includes the Federal Agency for Fisheries, the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation, the Federal State Budget Scientific Institution VNIRO, the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the governments of the Irkutsk Region and the Republic of Buryatia.

The Baikal omul is a fish of the whitefish genus of the salmon family, belongs to valuable commercial species and is endemic to the lake. Restrictions on the catch of the Baikal omul were introduced by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation from October 1, 2017. The Baikal seal is also endemic – it is at the top of the food chain of the lake’s ecosystem and has no natural enemies there. Commercial harvesting of seals on Lake Baikal was banned in 2007.

The head of the science department of the Zabaikalsky National Park (FGBU “Zapovednoe Podlemorie”) Alexander Ananin calls the regulation of the number of seals “an inevitable process.” “The risk that its population will exceed the threshold in the coming years is very high. After that, the mass death of seals from various diseases will begin. Similar phenomena have already occurred on Baikal before,” he told Kommersant. However, the scientist clarified that no one can now give up-to-date and reliably proven data on the number of endemic, “but it is believed that the population is close to 130 thousand individuals, while the threshold value is about 100 thousand.”

Interestingly, omul is not a natural food for seals. “In nature, she simply cannot catch up with him and catch him. But the seal has learned to successfully eat the fish out of the nets. For her, it’s like going to the supermarket – affordable food in stock. Given the large population, the overall damage to fisheries can be significant,” explains Alexander Ananin.

At the same time, the regulation of the number of seals is now not possible, the representative of the reserve admits, in particular, due to the lack of infrastructure for processing and marketing carcasses. “Meat can be used to feed animals on fur farms. But such enterprises need to be created and developed. And what to do with the skins, with the fat of the seal is not at all clear. Yes, and the places of its shooting must be determined very clearly, outside the zone of specially protected natural areas, tourist places. The public will not forgive if footage of the shooting of the symbol of Baikal begins to flicker in social networks, ”he argues.

Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, scientific director of the Baikal Institute of Nature Management of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Arnold Tulokhonov recalls the experience of the Soviet era, when the population of the Baikal seal was constantly regulated: “Fat was used in the perfume industry, in medicine. Meat was fed to other animals. The skins were used for the needs of light industry – for example, athletes at the 1964 Olympics represented our country in seal coats. According to him, such an infrastructure worked successfully in the north of Baikal – “away from nature reserves and settlements.”

Academician, director of the Irkutsk branch of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Igor Bychkov does not agree with his colleagues. “There are assumptions not confirmed by science: if the number of seals is growing, and the number of omul is falling, then the seal is eating it. This abstract juxtaposition must be abandoned. It is important to understand that the Baikal ecosystem does not consist of two to five species, it is large and complex. Therefore, it is necessary to study how these two species are interconnected,” the expert says. “In my opinion, if we want to restore the damage after uncontrolled omul fishing and caviar selection, then we need to increase the productivity of our fish hatcheries many times over. And to produce not two or twenty million eggs, but one or three billion a year. It is better to work in this direction,” he believes. Mr. Bychkov also recalls the ethical side of the issue of “reducing the number of our seal”. He points out that “humanity does not need any products from the Baikal endemic”, and therefore “the destruction of the seal is unacceptable.”

Dmitry Glazov, executive director of the Council for Marine Mammals NGO, reflects: “If a decision to regulate the abundance is made, then it should be preceded by a rigorous scientific approach. These are indisputable methods for confirming the number of seals, established quotas for hunting by age and sex of animals, and constant monitoring of the results of regulation. On Lake Baikal in recent years, for environmental reasons, there has been a reduction in the natural food supply of seals. “If this factor is superimposed on uncontrolled and ill-conceived shooting, then in a few years we risk facing a threat to the endemic population,” he concludes.

Vlad Nikiforov, Irkutsk