The World - News from Aug. 11, 1988

European scientists are meeting in London to try to identify a disease that has killed a fifth of the seal population in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. “While governments argue over who is to blame for the current crises in the North and Baltic seas, the common seal in this area faces extinction,” said Andrew Booth, a spokesman for the environmental group Greenpeace. More than 6,000 dead seals have washed up on the shores of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, West Germany and the Netherlands since the illness struck in April, and there are fears it may have spread to the British coast. Scientists do not know what is causing the deaths but agree that two viruses are present in affected animals.