A discussion about what effect seals that are hauling out in river mouths have on salmon fisheries in the rivers has been going on for a long time. It is common that fishing associations pay farmers to hunt seals in river mouth areas, as they believe that this action will lead to a higher number of salmon in the river.

Trough the years this has led to arguments between different interests; fishermen on the one hand and seal-watching entrepreneurs and tourists on the other. Not many biological studies have been made on this topic and proof of a positive effect of hunting seals in river mouths on the number of salmon in the river is not yet present. Also, researches on the effect of seal hunting on the size of the seal population in Iceland are lacking.

To find out more about the effect of the seal predation on salmon, The Seal Center and the Institute of Freshwater Fisheries have recently started up a research project.  The study includes behaviour studies of the seals in the river moth area, where radio senders will be glued on some individuals, giving researches the possibility to see how frequent those seals come in to the area, as well as how long they stay there each time. The feeding behaviour of the seals that are hauling out in those areas will also be studied, according to how big percentage of their feeding intake consists of salmonoids. In addition, the local salmon fishing associations will assist collecting information about caught salmonids that have earlier been injured by seals.