Harp Seals 2007

 
The Annual Canadian Seal slaughter ended on June 15th.

Although the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) had set a quota of 275,000 seals, the kill to date has been 214,000.

There are two factors that have prevented the Canadian seal killers from realizing their quota. The first was diminished ice conditions in the Gulf of St. Lawrence that killed an unknown number of seal pups - up to and above 250,000 by some estimates.

The second factor is heavy ice conditions on the Labrador Front that damaged some 25 sealing vessels and sank a couple. Losses to the sealing industry were up substantially this season.

Efforts to have the commercial seal hunt banned in Europe have been progressing very positively as one European nation after another joins the ban on seal products helping to undermine the market. The value of seal pelts has fallen considerably.

In addition, the international boycott of Canadian seafood products is impacting the Canadian economy causing more losses in profits than the seal hunt brings into the economy.

The seal hunt continues to exist as a glorified welfare program supported by the Canadian Federal government.

Every year, our anti-sealing movement gets stronger.

We shut this bloody obscenity down in 1984, but unfortunately, in the world of wildlife conservation, victories are often temporary and the hunt was revived again in 1995. Once gain, we have to build up the movement to force economic pressure towards shutting it down again.

The seal slaughter business is an ugly one

The regulations protecting the sealing industry are a violation of the Canadian Charter for Rights and Freedoms. For example, there is a regulation prohibiting the observation and documentation of the seal "hunt" without a permit. Sea Shepherd has been fighting these regulations in the Prince Edward Island Courts since 2005 on the grounds that the regulations violate the Charter. The case is still ongoing.

We are also appealing the conviction of 12 Sea Shepherd crewmembers on charges from 2005 that they were found guilty of witnessing the killing of a seal and were each fined $1,000. Captain Paul Watson was fined $3,000 and ordered to not travel to the Gulf of St. Lawrence or the Labrador Front for three years.

Sea Shepherd has continued to promote the Boycott of Canadian Seafood and participated in the worldwide protest against the slaughter this spring. Sea Shepherd Canadian field activist Stephen Thompson led a high profile protest in front of the Canadian Parliament Buildings on March 15th.

Steve and his fellow protestors gather on the Parliament steps

Watch video of Captain Watson debating a Canadian Senator about the seal slaughter (12 minutes)

Sea Shepherd will be launching a major advertising campaign to draw more attention to the seal slaughter, and we are investigating strategies and tactics to embark on another voyage to oppose the hunt sometime in the future when funding and logistics will allow us to return.

With the Canadian seal slaughter, we are fighting the entrenched and stubborn bureaucracy of the DFO, the most mismanaged and incompetent government department in Canada. The Minister of Fisheries Loyola Hearn is a man more interested in appeasing his special interest constituents in his home province of Newfoundland than in representing the concerns of the Canadian people as a whole.

Defending the seals of Canada has been one of Sea Shepherd's most important campaigns over the years, and as Sea Shepherd Advisor Martin Sheen said when asked if the fight to end sealing was a lost cause, "Lost causes are the only causes worth fighting."

Martin Sheen and Captain Watson talk to the media about the
devastation of Canada's annual slaughter of seals

Captain Watson has been fighting the seal "hunt" for more than three decades but he is convinced that sealing can be abolished. "My objective is to see sealing and whaling eliminated in my lifetime. Is this ambitious? Yes, it is. But it is a goal that can be attained if we build a movement that is dedicated to abolishment. I think we can do it."

Click here to learn more about Sea Shepherd's efforts to save seals!