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Canada's East Coast Seal Hunt Opens Quietly in Gulf of St. Lawrence

Posted on: Monday, 2 April 2007, 21:00 CDT

CHARLOTTETOWN (CP) - The East Coast seal hunt quietly opened Monday in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence, where ice conditions were described as the worst seen in a decade.

Fisheries officials said they expect only a few boats from the Maritime provinces will take part in the first phase of the centuries-old hunt. About 40 boats from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island are eligible, with most of the early hunting focused on the Cape Breton coast, said Fisheries Department spokesman Roger Simon.

"There are a few seals scattered from Sydney towards Canso but they are very sparse and the ice is broken and deteriorated," he said.

"What seals were in that area may be swimming back north and we know a higher proportion drowned this year."

One fisheries observer said only two boats went out Monday.

Newborn seals cannot swim in the first weeks of life and need solid ice to survive.

The total quota for this year's seal hunt is 270,000 animals. That's 65,000 fewer seals than last year, a change that was made mainly because of the ice conditions.

Simon said the largest concentration of Gulf seals is in the more northerly Strait of Belle Isle, between Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador.

That area of the northern Gulf will be open to hunters beginning Wednesday.

Animal welfare groups are condemning the Canadian government's decision to allow a hunt in the southern Gulf where poor ice conditions have caused unusually high pup mortality.

"I've witnessed the hunt for nine years, and I've never seen ice conditions this bad," said Rebecca Aldworth of the Humane Society of the United States, a leading opponent of the annual slaughter.

"Even Canadian government scientists are estimating up to 100 per cent of the pups born in the southern Gulf died because of the lack of ice. It is reprehensible that the Canadian government would allow sealers to kill the few surviving pups."

Most of the seals will be taken in a subsequent hunt off northern Newfoundland in an area called the Front. An opening date has yet to be announced for the start of that hunt.

Sheryl Fink of the International Fund for Animal Welfare flew over the southern Gulf on Monday and saw only one sealing boat.

"The hunters were shooting seals," Fink said.

"It's so depressing. There are so few seals out there and these hunters are cleaning out what's left."

Aldworth and Fink are angry that Canadian fisheries officials denied observer permits for the first two days of the commercial Gulf hunt.

"The commercial seal hunt occurs in public space and observation is a right guaranteed under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, not a privilege to be arbitrarily granted by a government department," Aldworth said.

Phil Jenkins said the Fisheries Department is trying to strike a balance.

He said with so few sealing vessels in the southern Gulf and very little sealing activity, the department decided it would not be a good idea to hand out observer permits.

He said the decision to allow or prohibit observers is covered by marine mammal regulations. He said the permits are decided on a case-by-case basis.

Liberal MP Rodger Cuzner will get an ice level view of the harvest this year.

Cuzner, who represents the constituency of Cape Breton-Canso, will join fellow members of the Commons standing committee on fisheries and oceans on ice floes as an observer.

The committee is in the final stages of tendering its report on the seal harvest.

Before that report is finished, Cuzner thought it was important to see the harvest up close.

"During testimony, one witness had indicated she had been on the ice on several occasions and made reference that we as committee members have never witnessed it up close," the MP said when contacted at home in Glace Bay.

"Whether I took it as a personal challenge or as a matter of fact, that motivated me to encourage the group to embark upon this trip, so I moved the motion to do this and got the support of the entire committee."

While the harvest is often condemned worldwide, Cuzner said it has the support of all parties in Parliament.

"We support the seal harvest - the traditional harvest that Inuit and coastal communities have undertaken forever. We continue to support that but it is imperative that we make sure those harvesters are complying with best practices."

Source: Canadian Press

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