Fewer endangered Saimaa seal pups born this winter

Yahoo News 5 May 09;

HELSINKI (AFP) – Finnish conservation biologists said Tuesday fewer pups of the rare Saimaa seal were born this winter compared to 2008, a move which sparked the government to promise tighter fishing restrictions.
Finland's biggest lake, Lake Saimaa in eastern Finland covers 4,400 square kilometres and is home to some 260 Saimaa seals, according to government figures from 2008.

In this spring's seal cubs calculations only 43 cubs were found, which is eight less than a year ago said Metsaehallitus, the state agency, which looks after state-owned land and water areas.

"This is alarming because we had two warm winters with small number of pups and now we had another small age group. This will slow the growth of the population in the future," biologist Tero Sipilae from Metsaehallitus told AFP.

The decline in the number of pups born may seem small, but up to 30 percent of the cubs die during their first year mainly because they get tangled up in fishing nets when they learn to swim and fish.

The seals feature on the European Union's endangered species list as it has suffered from man's action such as pollution in the 1960's and nowadays from warmer winters and dangerous fishing equipment.

Metsaehallitus data shows the seal population increased from 189 in 1990 to 280 in 2005, although that number fell to 260 last year.

Environmental organisations such as the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation have criticised the government for not imposing tighter fishing restrictions in April-June in areas where seals live.

The ministry of agriculture and forestry said it would start to prepare a ban on fishing nets in Saimaa and the law would come into force next year.

"We will soon present a change in the fishing law, which would enable banning fishing nets to protect the Saimaa seal," Sirkka Anttila, the minister of agriculture and forestry, said in a separate statement.