Currently, seal hunting is capped at just one percent of the gray seal population. However, the Ministry of Regional Affairs and Agriculture noted that the seal population, along with the associated damage, has grown significantly, necessitating an increase in the quota to 5 percent.

Kaire Märtin, an adviser at the ministry's Fisheries Economics Department, stated that the initial proposal is to set the quota at 3 percent.

"Because their population has grown, gray seals are causing increasing damage to both fish stocks and fishing gear," Märtin explained. "3,500 animals is considered a favorable population size, but we currently have over 6,000."

Esta Tamm, executive director of the NGO Gulf of Riga Fisheries Association, noted that fishers welcome the ministry's initiative. Fishers in the coastal Pärnu County even applied for an additional seal hunting quota.

"If we look at 2024, meaning this year, for example, we were allowed to hunt a total of 61 [seals] altogether across Estonia – versus a population of 7,393 animals," Tamm pointed out, noting that this is actually a marginal number.

"In the Pärnu County region, for example, our quota was already exhausted by mid-September, and we applied to the state for an additional quota," she continued. "We were granted permission at other regions' expense."

The executive director said she receives reports every other day from fishers who have suffered damages caused by gray seals.

"They cause various problems for fishers, ranging from damaging target fish to removing fish from traps and damaging fishing equipment," she described.

"They likewise scare fish away from fishing areas, altering fish stocks," she continued. "If you've got a seal circling around your fish trap, fish are hardly likely to swim in there. Some fishers have told me that they set their nets on one side, and by the time they've rushed back, there's already a seal there waiting for them."

At the ministry, Märtin added that hunting requirements need to be reviewed as well.

"We believe current requirements don't adequately account for the specifics of hunting marine animals," the adviser acknowledged.

"For instance, shooting tests for large game are tailored to hunting land-dwelling game animals," she cited as an example. "We should review these together to identify where things could be simplified. Requirements that are irrelevant to hunting marine animals should be removed."

Märtin added that it's also possible to use specialized "seal traps," in which the seal doesn't drown and can be caught from there.

Esta Tamm noted that it's also important to consider how seals can be marketed.

"Finland, Sweden and Estonia have worked very effectively at the EU level today to enable more seal hunting as well as allow their marketing," the fisheries association chief said. "A major issue currently is that nothing can be done with seals."

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