What seals are hunted?
Canadas Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) is responsible for setting the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for three seal species. Harp seals (Phoca groenlandica) are the primary target of the commercial seal hunt but Hooded seals (Cystophora cristata) and Grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) are hunted as well.
What is the natural life expectancy of the harp seal and at what age are they hunted?The harp seal can live up to 35 years in the wild but the vast majority hunted every year (98% last year) is less than 12 weeks old. These defenseless pups make easy targets and their prime condition pelts are worth more than the adults.
Is it now illegal to hunt baby seals?In 1983, the European Economic Community (EEC) instituted a ban on the importation of pelts from newborn harp seal pups (whitecoats) and hooded seal pups (bluebacks). The Canadian government responded to the international pressure in 1987 and banned the commercial killing of seal pups less than 12 days of age. However, the seal pups are fair game as soon as they start to molt their first hairs at 12 days old. Many of the seals killed had yet to eat their first solid food or learn how to swim. When the large sealing vessels arrive, they literally have nowhere to escape.
The DFOs own statistics indicate that the vast majority of seals killed every year are between 12 days to 12 weeks old. These are most certainly pups by any biological definition. Harp seals do not reach sexual maturity until 4-6 years of age.
2. When and where are seals hunted?
When and where does Canadas commercial seal hunt occur?Although the season for hunting seals is open from November 15 to May 15, the majority are killed in the spring after the mother seals have given birth to their pups. The large-scale hunt usually begins at the end of March in the waters and on ice floes off Canadas eastern coast. There are two main areas where the hunt occurs: in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, just east of the Magdalen Islands and off the coast of northeastern Newfoundland in an area known as the Front.
3. The largest slaughter
How many seals are hunted every year?Canadas seal hunt is the largest deliberate slaughter of marine mammals on the planet.
Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans has authorized the killing of
335,000 harp seals, 10,000 hooded seals and 10,400 grey seals during the
2006 commercial hunt. Between 2003-2005, more than 1 million harp and
hooded seals were slaughtered for their skins.
4. Cruelty on ice
How are the seals killed?Seals can be legally killed with wooden clubs, hakapiks (large ice-pick-like clubs) and guns. In the Gulf of St. Lawrence, clubs and hakapiks are the killing implement of choice because they are cheaper to use and each bullet hole depreciates the value of the pelt. The seal hunt that takes place in the Front happens in April when the ice starts to break up as a result of the spring thaw. Since there is little ice to stand on, the hunters normally shoot at seals from their moving vessels. Regardless of which killing method is used, the seals suffer an agonizing death. The pups that try to escape under the ice are likely to drown along with the many seals that are wounded in the water.
Is the seal hunt conducted humanely?
Last year, 146,000 seals were killed in less than two days. This statistic is telling enough; these hunters do not take the time to ensure a humane kill in their race to acquire the most pelts.
Veterinarians have shockingly documented seals being skinned alive. In 2001, an independent team of veterinary experts studied Canada's commercial seal hunt. Their report concluded that in 42% of the cases they examined, the seal did not show enough evidence of cranial injury to even guarantee unconsciousness at the time of skinning. Video footage taken by hunt observers shows that many sealers do not conduct the Blink-reflex Test to ensure each seal is rendered unconscious before skinning, although the test is quick, simple and required by law.
The short duration of this hunt as well as the geographic and financial obstacles to monitoring the hunt, makes it impossible to ensure that the seals are killed humanely.
5. Who hunts seals?
Who hunts seals?Hunting for seals (or sealing) is an off-season activity conducted by a few thousand commercial fishers from Newfoundland and Quebec. Anyone can acquire a license to hunt seals which costs merely $5 /year. Sealers make roughly 5% of their income from slaughtering seals and 95% from the fishing industry.
Do Canadian aboriginals hunt seals?
Canadas commercial seal hunt is an industrial scale slaughter conducted almost entirely by non-aboriginal people from Canadas east coast. Less than 1% of the seals killed in the commercial hunt off the Atlantic coast may have been killed by aboriginals residing in Labrador. In the Arctic, the Inuit hunt adult ring seals for subsistence purposes.
WSPA is not opposed to the hunting of seals by aboriginal people for subsistence purposes provided that it is conducted humanely at a sustainable level. When the commercial seal hunt ends on Canadas east coast, native families will still be able to hunt individual seals for food and clothing.
6. Seal products
Why are seals hunted? As there is almost no market for seal meat, the carcasses are normally left to rot on the ice or they are dumped into the ocean. There is a small market for seal oil (both for industrial purposes and for human consumption) and in the past, seal *****es were sold in Asian markets as an aphrodisiac. The only economically valuable part of the seal is its fur a non-essential luxury product that no one really needs.
7. Seal population
How many seals are there?
When Europeans first arrived on Canadas eastern coast, there were an estimated 40 million seals living in balance with cod and other fish species, so abundant they impeded the passage of ships. Today, the Canadian government estimates there are some 5.8 million seals in eastern Canadian waters and the cod are on the brink of extinction.
Are seals endangered?While the harp seal is not on Canadas species at risk list, it is unlikely that the population can continue to withstand the current levels of exploitation.
The last time this many seals were killed was in the 50s and 60s (before the hunt was managed by the Canadian government) when nearly 2/3 of the population was wiped out. By the mid 70s, senior scientists employed by the Canadian government recommended the commercial hunt be suspended for at least ten years to allow the troubled population to recover.
Unlike the walrus, pilot whale, polar bear, wolf, Labrador duck and Eskimo Curlew that were commercially exploited to extinction in Atlantic Canada years ago, the future of Canadas harp and hooded seal population is now also jeopardized by global warming. To raise their pups, these seals are dependant on ice coverage, which has declined significantly over the years. The decline in sea ice could lead to a dramatic increase in seal mortality rates.
Seals are also threatened by unsustainable fishing practices which are not only depleting their food sources but entangle them in non-selective nets and trawls.Thousands of seals are caught every year as bycatch in gillnets.
It is naïve to think Canadian seal populations are doing just fine when they have been subjected to the largest cull in half a century as well as the implications of a degraded marine ecosystem due to over-fishing, pollution and climate change.
8. Seals and fish
What do seals eat?Harp seals consume a wide variety of fish and invertebrate species including euphausiids, cod, capelin and shrimp. Their diet varies with age, season, location and year.
Are seals threatening the recovery of north Atlantic cod stocks?
Supporters of the hunt still believe that there are too many seals eating far too much fish. When North Atlantic cod stocks were decimated in the early 90s by overfishing and government mismanagement, seals quickly became the politically convenient scapegoats for the economic crisis.
After surveying the stomach contents of harp seals, scientists estimate that commercially fished cod comprises just 3% of the seals diet. Since harp seals also consume many significant predators of cod, killing hundreds of thousands of seals every year could lead to an increase in predatory fish populations and thus a further decline in cod and other groundfish.
9. Subsidized cruelty: Is it worth it?
What is the economic value of the seal hunt?
Sealing is an off-season activity for those primarily employed in the commercial fisheries. They make roughly 5% of their income from killing seals and 95% from the fishing industry.
Even in Newfoundland where the vast majority of sealers live, sealing only accounts for less than 1% of the provinces Gross Domestic Product and revenues comprise just 2% of the fisherys total landed value. In comparison, shellfish such as snow crab represent 80% of the landed value. In a record profit year, the seal hunt is valued at $16 million.
Is the seal hunt subsidized?The seal hunt has been artificially sustained through government subsidies, without these, the hunt is very likely a net cost to Canada. According to study conducted by the Canadian Institute for Business and the Environment, more than $20 million in subsidies were provided to the sealing industry between 1995 and 2001. Government subsidies have been provided to seal processing industry for workers salaries and upgrades and to enhance the development and promotion of new markets for seal products. The study concluded that the commercial hunt provided 100-120 full-time jobs in sealing and processing and Canadian taxpayers are spending $28,250 - $33,900 for each of these positions. Taxpayers also pay for the Canadian Coast Guard which breaks the ice every year so that the sealing vessels can access the seals.
Subsidizing an industry which only employs a hundred people full time and a few thousand for a few weeks of the year is a bad investment for the country
2006 World Society for the Protection of Animals - WSPA
Do all Canadians lack understanding of sarcasm or is it just you? Eh? 
