It’s Time for an End to Canada’s Commercial Harp Seal Hunt

Helpless baby seals bludgeoned on the head in a bloody massacre every year? Hundreds of thousands of them? First there’s shock. Then, as is true for many other atrocities in this world, for some there’s acceptance. Yet a number of years ago, when I became an activist and started engaging people about the annual commercial harp seal hunt that takes place off Canada’s eastern shore, a lot of them expressed disbelief: “That’s still going on?” they asked incredulously. It does seem an anachronism, now more than ever.

This year the killing had to end early.¹ Unusually warm temperatures caused a vast expanse of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which is normally covered with miles of ice floes in late February through March, to remain open sea. Migrating pregnant harp seals were forced to abort in the water instead of giving birth on the sea ice, which then becomes the pups’ nursery. Thousands of newborn seals drowned.² The climate change, combined with the European Union’s recently voted ban on seal products³ and the international boycott of Canadian seafood backed by a host of humane organizations⁴ ,⁵ have caused the 2010 seal hunt to be what one sealer called a “disaster.”¹ The single fur processor that didn’t shut down for this season’s kill promised to buy less than 15,000 pelts, and the price, though up from last year,¹ was only a fraction of what it was just four years ago.⁶ Fewer than 50 sealing boats out of the usual 500 set out from Newfoundland, and the one ship launched from the Magdalen Islands admits to throwing pelts back into the water. Most of Canada’s 6,000 sealers did not participate in this year’s hunt, and the number of seals killed was less than 15 percent of the current quota set by the Canadian government.¹

That quota was increased by 50,000 over last year,⁷ to a whopping 330,000, one of the highest total allowable catches in half a century,⁸ even as the existence of the harp seal as a species is being threatened.⁹ One has to wonder if Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans is thumbing its nose at the growing worldwide condemnation of the hunt. One also has to wonder why the Canadian Parliament won’t even allow debate on ending the slaughter. Once again, Senator Mac Harb has introduced a bill to put an end to the commercial seal hunt, and even though it was seconded on principle, if not support for the issue, the Senate has refused debate. Harb, despite his well-respected career in politics, has become a pariah within his own ranks.¹⁰

As events stack up making evident the absurdity of continuing the commercial seal hunt, the Canadian government remains steadfast in its commitment to keep it going, attempting to open up new markets for sealskins in Asia, promoting the sale of seal meat at home¹ despite reports of contamination,¹¹ and challenging the EU ban at the World Trade Organization.¹ Baby seals are regularly hooked in the eye¹² to prevent damage to the coat and dragged across the ice while still conscious, as well as skinned alive.^{13 14} Is this what Canada wants to be known for as its source of unity and pride?

1. Canada’s seal hunt to close early after low harvest, Yahoo News, Michel Compte, April 15, 2010. [↩] [↩] [↩] [↩] [↩] [↩]
2. Melting Out from Under Them, Humane Society International/Canada, Rebecca Aldworth, March 10, 2010. [↩]
3. MEPs adopt strict conditions for the placing on the market of seal products in the European Union, European Union Press Release, May 5, 2009. [↩]
4. Canadian Seafood Boycott: The Most Potent Strategy to End the Annual Seal Hunt in Canada, Harpseals.org. [↩]
5. Canadian Commercial Seal Hunt and the Canadian Seafood Boycott, AnimalAlliance.ca. [↩]
6. CBC News — FAQs: The Atlantic Seal Hunt. [↩]
7. 2010 Seal Hunt Opens, Humane Society International/Canada, March 29, 2010. [↩]
8. Canadian Government Raises Kill Quota for Harp Seal Pups Despite Severe Lack of Ice Habitat, PR Newswire-US Newswire, March 15, 2010. [↩]
9. Harp Seals May Be Extinct in Two Decades, Sea Shepherd News, October 29, 2006. [↩]
10. Anything’s debatable – except the seal hunt, Times Colonist, Elizabeth Payne, April 4, 2010. [↩]
11. Trace Metals and Methyl Mercury: Associations and Transfer in Harp Seal (Phoca Groenlandica) Mothers and Their Pups, R. Wagemann, R. E. A. Stewart, W. L. Lockhart, B. E. Stewart, M. Povoledo. [↩]
12. Society for the Advancement of Animal Wellbeing: The Harp Seal Hunt. [↩]
13. Veterinary Report: Canadian Commercial Seal Hunt, Prince Edward Island, March 2001. [↩]
14. Seal Hunt 2010: Closing Time, A “Live from the Ice” dispatch from Rebecca Aldworth, director of Humane Society International/Canada, April 13, 2010. [↩]

Alice Bruckenstein is an animal rights activist living in New York City. Her not-for-profit "Song for Canada’s Harp Seals," after over 9,000 views, was recently censored on YouTube, and she has created a petition to unflag the song. Read other articles by Alice.

This article was posted on Monday, April 19th, 2010 at 8:59am and is filed under Animal Rights, Canada, Culture.