Hunt Basics:
- Canada’s annual commercial seal hunt for harp seals off the coast of Newfoundland is the world’s largest slaughter of marine mammals.
- The seal hunt takes place over a vast area under unpredictable and unmanageable conditions in a period of a few weeks. It is these conditions that make it inherently cruel and have led experts to believe that it can never satisfy conditions of a humane hunt.
- The seal hunt takes is for young harp seals that are about 2 weeks old. It is legal to hunt them as soon as they begin to shed their white fur. 95% of the harp seals killed are from 2 weeks to 3 months old.
- The white coat harp seal ban was passed in Canada in the mid 1980’s. These same seals are killed just days later.
- The hunt takes place in two areas- the Magdalene Islands where the hakapik is used and on the ‘the Front’ which is an area off the coast of Newfoundland where the seals are shot and clubbed.
- The hunt that IFAW and other NGO’s are fighting against is the commercial seal hunt. This is completely different from the Inuit hunt which is mostly for adult seals and a totally different species.
-Canada’s commercial seal hunt is managed by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) and the Marine Mammal Regulations are under Canada’s Fisheries Act.
Governments Role:
The federal government indirectly subsidizes the hunt by:
- locating the seals via helicopter and letting the sealers know where to go.
- providing ice breaking services to lead the hunters to the sealers.
- sending expensive delegations to Europe to try to stop countries and the European Union from banning seal products.
- Research into the development of new seal products, construction and upgrading of seal processing plants.
Economics:
- No one makes a living entirely from sealing. Most sealers are fishermen who seal to make extra money. As each pelt is worth $, this makes them race from seal to seal trying to kill as many as quickly as possible.
- It's estimated that sealing accounts for less than 5% of a sealers income.
- The seal hunt has minimal economic value. It accounts for less than ½ of 1% of the GDP for province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Trade Bans:
- The European Union put forth a declaration to ban all harp and hood seal products in Europe. The proposed ban is currently being discussed and will be decided upon in the next few months. If the ban gets implemented it will send a strong message to Canadian politicians and significantly reduce the value of seal pelts and products.
