Gray seals were nearly wiped out in the Baltic Sea decades ago, but a hunting ban brought the population back to around 55,000 animals, and now fishermen say the seals are wrecking their livelihoods. Latvian fisherman Janis Krumins, one of the last working the Baltic coast, has switched to bite-resistant nets and homemade traps to keep an adult gray seal, which eats about ten kilograms of fish a day, away from his catch. In Sweden, the government has lowered the species' protection status and reopened limited hunting, though scientist Peter Ljungberg's backing hasn't translated into full use of the quota, partly because shooting seals in rough water is hard and selling the meat is illegal. On Germany's coast, where only about 400 seals live, more than 40 turned up dead last fall, apparently lured into traps and drowned. Marine biologist Judith Denkinger of the German Oceanographic Museum in Stralsund dissects the carcasses on camera to confirm how they died, turning the seals' return into an open case.