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IWMC
World Conservation Trust |
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"Seal Wars" Chapter 2:
Canadian Sealing
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The Canadian government has once again, opened the season for harp and
hooded seals off the coasts of eastern Canada. Newfoundlanders and Gulf of St.
Lawrence sealers are out there now, hunting the newly molted beaters, old
harps, and mature hooded seals. As usual, IFAW personnel are making the usual
nuisances of themselves, and they are finding it difficult, because of course,
there is no whitecoat hunt to use as a fundraiser.
It is now 19 years since IFAW managed to pull the animal rights coup of the
century in Europe, when they persuaded European citizens to demand that their
legislature ban the import of any seal products from animals under the age of
one year. In retrospect, that act has had a more devastating impact on seals,
whales, fish, seabirds, and people than any other could have had. In 1982 there
was a harp seal herd of 1.8 million animals, the hunt was focused mainly on
whitecoated pups, and on the molted pups, the bete de la mere, or
"beaters". The annual quota was 180,000 animals, and even at that
level, the herd was slowly increasing in a consistent manner. The Canadian
government managed the hunt and the herd, very well. Sealers were trained prior
to being licensed, fisheries officers flew in helicopters from one area of the
gulf and the front to the other, and there were no conservation problems. In
the 19 years since the market disappeared, the seals have grown to over 5
million. They eat fish. The result of their unimpeded growth is that fish
stocks are now over-fished by seals and by people, and the minke and other
whales, and the sea birds that also depend on fish, are having to spend a lot
more energy in the search for sustenance. Thanks, a lot, IFAW.
Since the 1983 ban, which has been extended indefinitely, life for sealers
has been hard, both psychologically and economically. Labrador Inuit, Greenland
Inuit, Nunavut Inuit, all have suffered from the loss of income from ringed
seals. Even though these animals are taken when mature, Europeans would no
longer buy them. So these First Nation people have turned to concentrate on
narwhal, and beluga, and in west Greenland, on halibut. The products of those
animals are sold commercially, so that hunters will have cash to continue to go
out and hunt the seals, which are their life staple, and which are needed as a
year-round meat resource. Without the money for the pelts of ringed seals, they
could no longer buy the fuel and ammunition to get to them, so they turned to
the other species, and now halibut and beluga are both considered over
harvested in some areas. Thanks a lot, IFAW.
In Newfoundland, communities have lost so many people that schools in some
areas have closed or have had to consolidate. Fishermen are having a much
harder time getting their quotas of herring, mackerel, and turbot. The season
for cod is open only for home consumption. Thanks a lot, IFAW.
An animal rights organization with political aspirations has made a
tremendous impact on the ecosystem of the western Atlantic, but they have not
won the Seal Wars. This year, the news is good. The price for large beater
pelts is up to $55 Canadian, astonishingly high compared to recent years. The
quota is 275,000 animals. Seal pelts are being used by the fashion industry
again, and the leather is eagerly sought, perhaps because there are fewer beef
pelts due to the UK hoof and mouth epidemic, and seal oil products are being
produced for human consumption. What is IFAW doing in the face of this? They
are claiming that the present quota is unsustainable. Well, duh! That is the
point, to cut down this herd that is itself, suffering from overcrowding,
fighting, and increasingly scarce fish to eat. The Seal Wars are not over, but
the seals, and the sealers, are making progress, thanks to their own true grit
and the determination of Canada to rectify this ecological disaster. The rest
of the world will buy seal products, while Europe and the United States are
still stuck in the mud of deception that IFAW, Greenpeace, and HSUS have formed
from the tears of their misinformed donors. Carry on, Canada. You will win, and
the seas will once again, return to a God given balance of resources for man,
fish, whales, birds and seals. 
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