Seal Hunt Slowed, But Not Stopped

by Stephanie Feldstein · 2010-04-05 08:00:00 UTC
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There's not much of a Canadian seal hunt happening this year, but it's not because hunters have suddenly grown a conscience about clubbing baby seal pups.

Traditionally, hundreds of thousands of baby seals would be brutally shot or clubbed to death for their prized pelts. That fur isn't quite as lucrative since the European Parliament banned the import or sale of products from commercially harvested seals. Animal welfare activists hoped that between the ban and the spotlight of the Olympics, this would be the year that the Canadian government cancelled the hunt. No such luck; as far as the government is concerned, it's full speed ahead.

But many seal hunters are keeping their boats docked. The warming weather means there's less ice off the coast of Canada, which is where the pups would normally be born and, with the herds scattered, it's just not worth it for the hunters to go to sea. But even with the hunters staying home, the seals are in danger this spring.

Harp seals have been using whatever bits of ice they can find to give birth. Many have moved north, but the shrinking ice has separated pups from their mothers, trapped them in moving ice, or caused them to slip from their little frozen islands and drown. Residents in Port au Choix, Newfoundland saw seal pups born elsewhere floating into shore all alone on small pieces of ice. The Quebec Marine Mammal Emergency Response Network has received about 50 times as many calls as they usually get from people who have found baby seals, but there's not much they can do since harp seals aren't very good candidates for rehab and release programs. 

The seals who gamble with giving birth on the shore often lose their pups to predators. Those who do survive will face the same global warming predicament as the polar bears — without sea ice, they have nowhere to rest.

According to Mike Hammill, a fisheries department biologist, seal pups haven't had it this bad in almost thirty years. This would be the time for the government to step in, stop the seal hunt, and protect the species. Instead, the Canadian Parliament's restaurant decided to serve seal meat.

Photo credit: Tuftronic10000

Stephanie Feldstein is a Change.org Editor who has been part of the animal welfare and rescue community for over a decade, and most recently worked for an environmental organization.
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