Seal harvest

Cabinet set the annual Total Allowable Catch for Seals for 2013 to 2015 at 80,000 pups and 6,000 bulls in accordance with Section 38 of the Marine Resources Act.
Population sizes of seals are estimated from pup numbers which are determined by means of aerial surveys of the breeding colonies in the period from 16 to 22 December when the majority of the pups have been born and peak numbers are expected. The recent stock assessment was based on aerial counts conducted in December 2011. The counts covered the entire coastline of Namibia and estimated the overall pup count to be at 254,554, while the total seal population was estimated by the stock assessment model to be around 1.2 million individuals during January 2012.