Environment Minister Jan-Erik Enestam has rejected a proposal to allow hunting of swans, but says he would consider allowing limited hunting of grey seals.
In an interview published in the newspapers Aamulehti and Turun Sanomat yesterday, Enestam said he did not believe that the Parliament would approve the hunting of the swan, which he called "a mythical bird".
On Saturday Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Juha Korkeaoja called for legal hunting of the two species of swans in Finland as well as grey seals.
Korkeaoja said that the populations of these protected animals have grown so large that they should be culled.
In an interview with Aamulehti, Korkeaoja argued that seals cause major losses for fishermen. He acknowledged that there would be problems with allowing the hunting of these species, as the whooper swan is Finland's national bird and the seal is seen as a symbol of nature conservation.
Back from the Brink
Finland has about 2000 pairs each of mute swans and whooper swans. The latter species has been protected since 1949, when there were only 15 pairs remaining. That number climbed to around 600 by the 1980s. Mute swans were introduced into Finland in 1934.
The chair of the parliamentary animal protection group, MP Pia Viitanen, has also rejected the idea of swan hunting. So have the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation and BirdLife Finland. The latter say there is no evidence that swans cause any damage. They have also called for decision-making on hunting to be shifted from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry to the Environment Ministry.
Conservation groups also point out that whooper swans are protected by EU law, and that all of the Baltic seals are classified as threatened species -- and that they are already hunted extensively, albeit illegally. There are an estimated 7000 grey seals in Finnish waters.
This autumn, the government is expected to approve the hunting of roe deer.
YLE24, Finnish News Agency