By Loren Drummond
The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans was expected to announce plans for the 2007 seal hunt today, but instead said it would likely make the announcement on March 30.
Despite alarming mortality rates among newborn seals this year and appeals from animal and environmental protection organizations to call off the hunt, preparations by the Canadian Coast Guard and sealing ships in the Magdalene Islands indicate that the hunt will not be canceled.
HSUS observers flying over the Gulf of St. Lawrence (map) said they've seen virtually no ice or seal pups in an area where 260,000 baby seals generally spend their first few weeks growing strong enough to survive in the icy waters.
The shortage of sea ice in the Gulf and the consequent mass seal pup deaths this year have taken scientists and the Canadian government by surprise. The government's intention to allow the hunt to go forward despite the already diminished seal herd defies claims that the annual hunt won't imperil the population.
|
The Hunt at a Glance |
|
 Canada's seal hunt is the largest commercial hunt of marine mammals in the world.
The hunt generally occurs in two phases; the first on the ice floes of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the second on the sea ice in the "Front" in the North Atlantic.
The majority of the seals killed are one month old or younger.
Sealers, mostly off-season fisherman, kill the seals by clubbing or shooting the animals. |
In 2006, more than 350,000 seals were killed for their fur, and approximately one million seals—most of them less than a month old—have been killed in the last three years.
The March 30 announcement by the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans will set the number of seals that can be killed in the hunt this year, a quota that even Canadian government scientists have advised should be significantly lowered from last year.
A growing number of governments have expressed concerns about the hunt. Most recently, on March 22, U.S. Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Susan Collins (R–Maine) introduced a resolution calling on Canada to end the inhumane seal hunt.
