Conflicts between commercial fisheries and seal populations have led to legal and illegal seal culling in multiple countries, raising welfare and conservation concerns.
Seal culling creates welfare concerns both from the killing methods used and the often disproportionate response to fishery conflicts. Commercial seal hunting involving shooting from moving boats has high wounding rates — animals that are shot but not immediately killed suffer prolonged deaths. Bycatch drowning in fishing nets is a welfare harm affecting seals regardless of culling decisions. The ecological case for large-scale seal culling to protect fish populations is scientifically contested — seals primarily consume species not commercially valuable to humans and play important roles in marine food webs. Non-lethal deterrents and fishery management reforms offer welfare-compatible alternatives to culling.