Russian scientists have spoken out against the destruction of Baikal seals.
Experts who work on the lake Baikal and marine mammals, opposed the increased harvesting of freshwater seals to reduce their numbers. сообщает TASS, citing materials from a roundtable discussion between the Lake Baikal Foundation and the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
"There are no negative consequences from the increase in the Baikal seal population. The main concerns with the increase in seal numbers are the decline in the omul population and the risk of an epizootic, that is, the widespread spread of an infectious disease among this species. However, these concerns are unfounded." — scientists believe.
They claim that at the moment there is no scientific data that would allow the introduction of mechanisms for artificial regulation of the seal population.
Let us recall that earlier at a meeting of the government commission on the protection of Lake Baikal, the Deputy Prime Minister Victoria Abramchenko instructed To study the issue of culling the Baikal seal. She justified this by citing the mammal's increased abundance as a hindrance to the commercial harvesting of Baikal omul.