Golden seals follow fishing boats to meals.
When it comes to finding a meal, South African fur seals are cunning and creative. Most of the seals leap back to safety just as the net is about to be pulled aboard ship. Not surprisingly, the bold behavior hasn't made the seals very popular among African fishermen. They blame the seals for reducing their catches of anchovies, hake, and other economically important fish. Indeed, when Namibia last year announced it was doubling the size of its annual fur seal hunt, allowing 67,000 seals to be killed, it said protecting fisheries was a major reason.