The Minister of Environment, Forestry, and Tourism Pohamba Shifeta has expressed concern at the increase in the population of brown fur seals at Cape Cross.

The Cape Fur Seal colony on the Skeleton Coast of Namibia is the biggest on the African coast, with over 100,000 seals.
 
The months of October, November, and December are usually the seal breeding season, where male seals reserve and defend their territories that consist of harems of between five and 25 females.

After three months of nursing, the female seals will go out to sea to feast on fish while the pups stay ashore.

This makes them vulnerable to opportunistic scavengers such as jackals and hyenas. 

However, Shifeta says there is a need to control the overpopulation of seals.

He says male seals eat twice as much fish as is caught by fishing companies, causing the extinction of certain species.

There is a market for seal products, and the minister highlighted some of these.

Cape Cross is located 60 kilometers north of Henties Bay and has both historic and biological significance.

It is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the country.

The Portuguese navigator, Diego Cao landed here in 1486 on his second expedition south of the equator and planted a stone cross to mark his journey, from which the name Cape Cross originated.

This reserve is a sanctuary for the world's largest breeding colony of cape fur seals, with up to 210 thousand seals recorded during the breeding season in November and December. 

The area has been listed as a National Heritage Site.