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Water en land

Mens en Milieu

Hunting   Seal hunt Wadden Sea   
Seal hunt, Ecomare

Seal hunt in the wadden region

Seals used to be hunted intensely in the North Sea region. They were considered harmful animals. They damaged fishing nets and pinched the fish from under the fishermen's noses. Hunters were given premiums for shooting seals. In order to receive the premium, they had to hand in the right flipper to the Town Hall where it was registered. Based upon this data, it is possible to make an approximate calculation as to how many animals there must have been in 1900, when the premiums were first offered. The estimate for 1900 are between 6000 and 14,000 animals in the Dutch section of the Wadden Sea.

  • Too intensely hunted

    In 1950, around 3000 seals still lived in the Dutch section of the Wadden Sea, an amount far below that in 1900. This was due to hunting. Beginning in the early 1950s, the demand for seal fur increase and practically all young seals were killed every year, leading to an accelerated decline in the number of animals in the Wadden Sea and delta region.

  • Hunting ban

    A general hunting ban on seals in the Netherlands went into effect in 1962. At that point, there were approximately 1100 seals left in the Dutch section of the Wadden Sea. The population slowly increased after the ban went into effect. A hunting ban in Denmark and Germany was not established until 1975. After a slow begin, the population eventually recovered well from the enormous hunting pressure in the whole Wadden Sea.
    In fact, it recovered so well that at the beginning of 1999, the chairman of the Dutch Fisheries Union predicted that due to the large growth in the seal population, it may be necessary to shoot seals again in the future. Aand at the end of 2003, the Bird Society on Terschelling requested that the State Forestry maintain respect for island traditions. Hunting seals was one of the examples given.