A new article was published in issue 29/2016 of the scientific journal Icelandic Agricultural Sciences (IAS) and can be accessed at http://www.ias.is/landbunadur/wgsamvef.nsf/key2/bsinaawuad.html
The article is called "Diet of harbor seals in a salmon estuary in North-West Iceland"And is by the authors Sandra M. Granquist and Erling Hauksson.
The article deals with the food choices of harbor seals in the estuaries of salmon and trout fishing rivers in Húnaþing vestra. The potential impact of seals on salmonids is a big and controversial issue, so this study is a very important contribution to that discussion. The authors studied the food choices of harbor seals in the oasis areas from 2009 to 2011 with a grind and bone analysis from seal faeces samples. The main conclusion was that there was no evidence of salmonids in the faeces of the seals. However, flatfish were the most important in the seals' diet in the estuaries, and the next most important was herring. Herring was also the fish species that was found proportionally most in all years (45% samples) and that together with flatfish and capelin were predominant in the number of individual fish. However, there was some variation between years and there was also seasonal variation in the seals' food choices. These results are a very interesting and important contribution to the debate on the alleged negative effects of seals on salmon and trout fishing in Iceland.
More information at IAS website.