The most effective of these appears to have been the bounty on harbour seals, which originally called for the submission of the seal's snout as evidence of destruction. In 1949 the regulations were changed and fishermen were required to submit the lower jaw, instead of the snout as evidence of destruction. Since the jaws from the two species are readily identifiable, this change essentially eliminated the kill of grey seals from the harbour seal bounty. Seals may not be taken during the breeding season. The lower jaw, with the place and date of capture are required as evidence of destruction.
Similar programs are in effect in the United Kingdom.
There, adult females and their pups are killed on the breeding grounds in an attempt to control or reduce the rapidly expanding grey seal population. At one colony, seals are taken because their increasing numbers had turned the island top soil into mud, making it no longer suitable for the nesting puffins to dig their breeding burrows. In Norway the government has hired fulltime seal hunters in an attempt to reduce their seal population by 75 per cent. The main reason is to reduce the incidence of the cod worm, an important consideration to a nation whose inshore fishermen make their living from the production of high quality fresh fish. The Irish government recently introduced legislation to investigate the possibility of reducing grey seal numbers.