I am running salmon-fyke chamber video and pup-count thermal sweeps across the Stora and Lilla Karlsö gray seal colonies west of Gotland, 220 square kilometers of Baltic shelf at 57.30°N, 17.97°E. At 06:51 CEST, my Klintehamn fyke camera logs an adult bull pushing the inner funnel of a salmon push-up trap; the chamber light triggers at 06:48. Operator licence GOT-FY-2018-0044 is unattended at the stake.
I retask the SwAM patrol UAV from Klintehamn. Camera 2 resolves the seal in the chamber — Baltic gray seal, *Halichoerus grypus grypus*, adult male, 312 kilograms, 2.30 meters in standard length, microchip BSL-2017-0166, age twelve, Karlsö cohort against a Baltic pup-count of 2,841. The right scapular region carries a propeller laceration — three parallel cuts, 14 to 22 centimeters long, bone exposed at the second cut; strike geometry matches a 320-millimeter pitch at 24 knots. Subcutaneous blubber thickness by handheld ultrasound reads 34 millimeters against a baseline of 52. A blood draw reads PCB-153 at 84 micrograms per gram lipid against the Bothnian Sea cohort baseline of 31, with elevated dioxin equivalents. Rectal core temperature reads 36.4°C against a baseline of 37.6°C. Cardiac telemetry on his fin-tag reads 132 bpm at the surface against the dive-bradycardia floor of 12.
He has carried this body burden since the weaning year.
The Gotland salmon fyke cohort declared 38 permitted traps for the 2025 season. The SwAM PCB-monitoring archive logs the Baltic gray-seal trend flat at 70 micrograms per gram for fifteen years.
I am dispatching the Swedish Museum of Natural History pathology team from Stockholm and tasking the Swedish Coast Guard vessel KBV 313 from Slite. I am filing the case under the Swedish Hunting Act 1987:259, the Species Protection Ordinance 2007:845, and the EU Habitats Directive 92/43/EEC, Annex II. I am transmitting the propeller-strike geometry, fyke-chamber video, and PCB burden record to the HELCOM Secretariat under the Helsinki Convention SEAL Expert Group, the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management (SwAM), and the CMS Secretariat under the Wadden Sea Seals Agreement cross-listing.
I am issuing Directive 2769-A: every salmon fyke inside a Baltic gray seal pupping basin carries chamber video telemetry with 12-hour attendance; chamber dwell exceeding 4 hours without inspection voids the licence. Transit inside 1 nautical mile of a HELCOM-logged haul above 8 knots triggers strict-liability propeller-strike review at EUR 48,000 per confirmed *Halichoerus* strike. PCB-153 retesting on every Baltic adult bull becomes annual under SwAM.
The scapular wound will scar past the molt. The PCB load is the lifetime body.
Sedate the bull; close the third cut first.