When it comes to finding a meal, South African fur seals are cunning and creative. As NATURE'S GOLDEN SEALS OF THE SKELETON COAST shows, some have learned to follow fishing boats, wait until they set their nets, and then leap into the full nets to feast on the swarm of trapped fish. Most of the seals leap back to safety just as the net is about to be pulled aboard ship.

Seals consume many noncommercial species of fish.

Not surprisingly, the bold behavior hasn't made the seals very popular among African fishermen. They blame the seals for reducing their catches of anchovies, hake, and other economically important fish. Indeed, when Namibia last year announced it was doubling the size of its annual fur seal hunt, allowing 67,000 seals to be killed, it said protecting fisheries was a major reason. "Seals don't eat air or grass," said Namibian Fisheries Minister Abraham Iyambo, according to local press reports. "They eat fish and lots of it. The proliferation of seals in Namibian waters poses a threat to the fishing industry."

Scientists, however, say the relationship between seals and fishing is more complicated than it seems. None dispute that seals eat lots of fish. But much of their diet is made up of noncommercial species. In addition, it appears that the seals may actually help some commercial species thrive. In the 1980s and 1990s, for instance, South African scientists studied the impact that seals might have on populations of hake, a popular food fish. They found that the seals preferred to eat one of the two most common kinds of hake. Because this fish was a major predator of the other kind of hake, which is preferred by fishermen, the researchers concluded that the seals were having little, if any, impact on the fishery.

Such studies, says the Wildlife Society of Namibia, a conservation group, suggest that justifying seal hunts as a way to protect fisheries is misguided. According to the group: "Informed decisions need to be made with the backing of scientific data." Where, it asks, is "the scientific data (if any) which proves that the large number of seals living off our coastline are negatively affecting the fishing industry?"

Meanwhile, the debate has done little to mollify fishermen, who routinely watch seals devour a portion of their catch with each haul of the net. Most shed few tears when, as often happens, one of the air-breathing mammals gets entangled in the net and drowns.