EU orders Finland to protect critically endangered seals
By John Platt Finland’s Lake Saimaa is home to one of the world’s rarest seals, the Saimaa ringed seal (Pusa hispida saimensis). Just 260 or so of these critically endangered animals remain in the freshwater lake, and now the European Union has told Finland that the country is not doing enough to protect the species. “We cannot allow rare species to disappear,” a spokesperson for the EU’s environment commissioner told reporters on Wednesday. “EU laws protect them.” The EU’s Habitats Directive law lists the Saimaa seal as a priority for protection and imposes strict limits on activities such as net-fishing, which might endanger the animals. Unfortunately, Finland has not followed the rules of the Habitats Directive. And although the species has been legally protected in Finland since 1955, after state-sponsored hunting almost wiped the seals out, the country has taken few recent steps to protect the seals. According to the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s agricultural ministry has so far only advocated voluntary limitations on fishing on Lake Saimaa, despite the fact that the biggest threat to Saimaa ringed seals is drowning in the nets of amateur fishermen. Finland did pass a commercial net-fishing ban last month, but it only covers 1,550 square kilometers (about 35 percent) of the lake, and three of the 200 fishing districts on the lake refused to sign on to the ban. It also does not cover amateur fishermen, which appear to be the biggest part of the problem. The EU Environmental Commission says there is evidence that “numerous young and adult seals are caught and drown in these nets every year” and that Finland is not doing enough to protect critical breeding sites. …
