seals eat lotsa fish. One of Norway's major industries is commercial fishing. Perhaps the seal population is too large, threatening the livelihood of an already threatened industry, and the predator/prey ratio in this case is too large.

or, perhaps the polar bears, who eat mainly seals, would increase if the seal population is too high. Here in Coldest Hel, they're becoming quite the nuisance, polar bears. There was one a little while back that broke through a window, dragged a man out of his house and mauled him. This incident spurs hatred of the local peoples towards the bears, motivating a whole buncha meaningless hunting in retaliation.

methinks better to control the populations before they become troublesome. This must be done responsibly with a knowledgable guide, of course. But really, the only tourists who would sign up for this kinda thing would be hunters anyways and likely fairly good shots with a rifle, so the inhumane-ness of the kill is really rather a silly notion.