Their chicks can only fit smaller, narrower fish, such as white hake –into their beaks and they have trouble swallowing larger, oval-shaped species like butterfish.

Namibia’s fishermen perceive seals as competing for such commercially valuable species as mackerel, sardines, anchovies, hake, and herring.

Jay Hakes, the author of A Declaration of Energy Independence, about the relationship between US national security and Middle Eastern oil, was similarly unsparing.