There is an increasing number of seals now cohabitating with humans on Belgium’s beaches, and this boost in the marine mammal population is due to the establishment of seal-only zones and changes made in the country’s legislation.
Over the last 20 years, the number of two species – grey seals and harbor seals – went from virtually none to between 100 and 200 individuals on the beaches of Belgium according to the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences.
Following the first COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, the North Seal Team and the city of Ostend established seal-only zones where people must stay 30 meters away from seals and absolutely never feed them. Volunteers patrol beaches to ensure a peaceful cohabitation between marine mammals and humans. In 2021, accidental captures of seals through gillnet or trammel net caused a peak in seal mortality, leading to a ban on this type of recreational fishing. The following year, half as many deaths were recorded, proof that the change in legislation worked.
