The Canadian Sealers Association prefers the "full utilization" of the mammals for fur, leather, meat and seal oil vitamins in opposition to the slaughter of seals solely for their genitalia. From what the sealers say, the Asian market is drying up and modern pharmaceuticals may be the reason.

The Harp seals, the most prolific and heavily-hunted species are not endangered. Both the Newfoundland's provincial government and Canada's federal government encourage seal hunting as a source of income for fishermen who lost their livelihoods with the collapse of the cod fishery in the early 1990s.

Opponents to the Harp seals hunt try to describe it as an ecological disaster, a view that most biologists dismiss. Seal herds are more robust today than they have been for decades, with the harp seal population pegged at 5.2-million, making the species no more endangered than white-tail deer in New England.

Seals are cute, which helps explain why anti-sealing groups have raised hundreds of millions of dollars to fight an industry worth maybe $10-million in good year.