This article was featured in Eurofish Magazine 5 2025.
As climate change accelerates the decline of fish stocks and the melting of ice platforms, Lithuania has noticed that the Baltic seal population is suffering. Now, rescue efforts are being expanded at the Baltic Sea Animal Rehabilitation Centre located in Klaipeda. Seals that wash up on the Lithuanian shorelines are brought into the centre and returned to health. The centre has been seeing seals since the 1980s, but notes that recently more and more seals are lining the coast. Arunas Grusasa, a biologist at the centre, says that seals were taught how to feed themselves, and to get used to the sea again. The work of the centre is crucial, as the survival rate of seal pups was as low as 5%. Once the scientists release the seals back into the wild, they equip them with GPS trackers to see where they migrate. The centre reports that they favour a route towards the Swedish Gotland Island where there are many fish. The centre has helped to rebuild the seal population, which fell to nearly 4,000 in the late 20th century. Today the Baltic seal population numbers up to 50,000 and is considered a menace by fishers and fish farmers in the Baltic.
