Baikal Seal - Abundance and Trends

Abundance and Trends

As of 2007, the Baikal seal is listed as a “lower risk” species on conservation lists. This means while they are not currently threatened or endangered, it is possible or even likely they will be in the near future. At last official count, by the Russian government in 1994, they numbered 104,000. In 2000, Greenpeace performed its own count and found an estimated 55,000 to 65,000 seals. Excessive hunting, as well as less severe problems of poaching and pollution, may be reducing the population.

In the last century, the kill quota for hunting Baikal seals was raised several times, most notably after the fur industry boomed in the late 1970s and when official counts began indicating there were more Baikal seals than previously known. The quota in 1999, 6,000, was lowered in 2000 to 3,500, which is still nearly 5% of the Baikal Seal population if the Greenpeace count is correct. In addition, new techniques, such as netting breathing holes, and seal dens to catch pups have been introduced. In one area, 3,000 of 4,000 breathing holes had been netted, many probably illegally. One prime seal pelt will bring 1,000 rubles at market, more than a month’s salary.

Lake Baikal has eight wildlife patrol officers, which amounts to one officer for roughly 2,500 square kilometers, making enforcement of regulations difficult. Even without poaching, hunting, even on a small quota, is a problem, because many of the seals that are shot or injured still escape, and die later. These do not fall under the kill quota and are tacked on after. It is unlikely poaching and hunting will slow considerably without government intervention.

The other problem at Lake Baikal is the introduction of pollutants into the ecosystem. Pesticides such as DDT and hexachlorocyclohexane, as well as industrial waste, mainly from the Baikalisk pulp and paper plant, have thought to have been the cause of several disease epidemics among the Baikal Seal. The chemicals are speculated to concentrate up the food chain, and weaken the Baikal seal's immune systems, making them susceptible to diseases such as canine distemper and the plague, which was the cause of a serious Baikal seal epidemic that resulted in the deaths of thousands of animals in 1997 and 1999.