With all the hysteria surrounding the Canadian seal hunt, you’d think seals were on the brink of extermination. Not true. The harp seal population is nearly triple what it was in the 1970s, currently estimated at 5.6 million. By contrast, in 2000, the number of right whales thought to be living in the North Atlantic was estimated at 300. Eastern wolverine populations might already be extinct. One of the reasons to support the seal hunt is that unnecessary efforts to protect harp seals actually distract us from more important conservation efforts.

The club, or hakapik, is actually an extremely humane way to kill a seal. Animal rights groups sometimes deride the use of clubs and guns as unnecessarily violent. However, seal hunters are actually compelled to use guns and hakapiks by the Government of Canada precisely because they are the quickest and most humane ways of killing the seals.

Clubbing or shooting a seal may sound or look brutal, but perception is not always reality. The hakapik is at least as humane as (if not more humane than) the means used to process beef in a typical slaughterhouse.

In 2002, the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association found that 98% of all seals were killed “in an acceptably humane manner.” Similarly, a 2005 report funded by the World Wildlife Fund concluded that, “the Canadian harp seal hunt is professional and highly regulated by comparison with seal hunts in Greenland and the North Atlantic. It has the potential to serve as a model to improve humane practice and reduce seal suffering within the other hunts.”

It’s illegal to hunt white-coat baby seals. It has been since 1987. That’s another of the top 10 reasons to support the seal hunt. Any website or organization that uses an image of a white-coated baby seal to convince you to oppose the seal hunt is manipulating you. They’re appealing to your emotions instead of your reason.

Overpopulation of the seal herd could result in many seals dying of starvation. If the population were to go unchecked, harp seal food sources would likely become threatened and many seals could suffer slow, painful deaths. Residents ofNewfoundland and Labrador have already reported seeing seals roaming outside of their typical habitats, in shallower waters, searching for food.

The seal hunt is an economically viable industry, employing over 6,000 people per year on a part-time basis. Some sealers estimate that the harp seal harvest represents as much as 35% of their household income. Moreover, the communities most dependent on the seal hunt have unemployment rates 30% higher than the national average.
Opponents to the seal hunt are essentially asking people who live in some of Canada’s poorest regions to give up as much as one-third of their incomes.

Another of our reasons to support the seal hunt is that it’s been part of Canada’s cultural fabric for hundreds of years. Coastal populations have survived by eating seal meat, much as urban populations survive on the beef, chicken and fish that are killed and processed in other parts of the country.

Seals are a source of Omega-3s

Doctors have been trumpeting the health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids a lot recently. Omega-3 fatty acids can be used in the prevention of arthritis, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, and many other ailments.

Canadian harp seals are an excellent source of omega-3s. Seals aren’t just hunted for their meat and their pelts, but also for seal oil and its many health benefits

We’ve been making the case that seals, just like cows or chickens, are a legitimate source of food and other useful products. Harp seals aren’t endangered, and the vast majority of seals are killed humanely. Nevertheless, like anyindustry, the commercial seal hunt isn’t perfect. Some hunters are guilty of abuses and some seals suffer unnecessarily. However, this is just another reason to support the seal hunt. We should be working to correct problems within the industry, rather than shutting the industry down altogether. Instead of helping to solve specific problems, those wholly against the seal hunt suggest we condemn the many for the sins of the few.

The seal hunt is carefully regulated

Careful government regulation is another one of the top 10 reasons to support the seal hunt. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans determines how many harp seals can be harvested every year; they use aerial monitoring, satellite tracking, dockside inspections, and a number of other protocols to ensure that regulations are being followed. By doing this, the Canadian government ensures that the seal hunt remains economically viable and environmentallysustainable.

Question the source of your information when opposing the seal hunt. Are you getting your information from scientists, or musicians? Is your data coming from the people living in eastern and northern Canada, or people living in Europe and Los Angeles? Paris Hilton and Paul McCartney are opposed to the seal hunt.

Meanwhile, renowned ecologist and conservationist Jacques Cousteau once said, “The harp seal question is entirely emotional. We have to be logical. We have to aim our activity first to the endangered species. Those who are moved by the plight of the harp seal could also be moved by the plight of the pig . . . We have to be logical. If we are sentimental about harp seals, which are not endangered because they are partially protected, then we have to also be emotional about pigs.”

If you can’t stand the thought of any animal being killed, fine -- that’s understandable. But if you can eat a pig, we think you should be convinced by our top 10 reasons to support the seal hunt.

The seal hunt notwithstanding, Canada's full of rural weirdness. Check out our list of Top 10 Oddball Canadian Islands, and if you're road-tripping through the middle of nowhere you'll definitely want to check out our Top 10 Roadside Attractions. 

Resources:

• www.thesealfishery.com
• www.releases.gov.nl.ca/
• www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca
• www.cbc.ca/
• www.wikipedia.org
• www.sararegistry.gc.ca/
• www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov
• www.sealsandsealing.net/

Seals blamed for lack of cod recovery - Nfld. & Labrador - CBC News

SYDNEY — A grey seal hunt on Hay Island off Cape Breton is looking doubtful this year because of a lack of markets, says a spokesman for the sealers.
Topics : Northeast Coast Sealers Co , Canadian Food Inspection Agency , Canadian Press , China , Cape Breton , Hay Island
Robert Courtney said Monday the Cape Breton sealers were hoping to see markets for grey seal meat in China but a proposed trade agreement opening the door for the export of Canadian seal products hasn’t happened.
“It don’t look good without the meat market,” said Courtney, president of the North of Smokey/Inverness South Fishermen’s Association.
“The people in China want it but the border isn’t open and we can’t get it there.”
Last January, then-Fisheries Minister Gail Shea announced from Beijing that she had landed a trade agreement to sell Canadian seal meat in China, but bureaucrats with Fisheries and Oceans and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency have confirmed the Chinese have yet to sign off on the agreement, the Canadian Press reported in November. Frank Pinhorn, executive director of the Canadian Sealers Association, said at the time Fisheries and Oceans may have promised too much, too soon but he’s confident a final deal is in the works.
Courtney said he had discussed possible markets for the grey seals with last year’s buyer, the Northeast Coast Sealers Co-operative in Newfoundland.
He said there isn’t much time for any upswing in his potential markets since the Hay Island hunt usually begins and ends over a short period of time in February.
“I doubt there will be anything,” he said.
Last February, the sealers hunted about 80 animals out of an allowable allocation of 1,900 on Hay Island. A group of Cape Breton sealers also hunted 115 grey seals on Henry Island and Saddle Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Courtney expected to know more after an Atlantic sealers advisory meeting Feb. 13-14 in Halifax.
Shannon Lewis, executive director of the Northeast Coast Sealers Co-operative, said it’s a bit early to say for sure, but by the time it figures out its purchase plans for this year, it will probably be too late to participate in the grey seal harvest, which is usually ahead of other seal hunts in Atlantic Canada.
Rebecca Aldworth of the Humane Society International/Canada, which has travelled to Hay Island to document and oppose the hunt, said it is clear people in China are against becoming a dumping ground for seal products the rest of the world doesn’t want to buy.
Aldworth said there are also concerns the way seal carcasses are processed doesn’t meet standards in China for food processing.
She hoped to see Ottawa buy up the licences of sealers.
“I think, frankly, the grey seal hunt has been over for many years,” she said.
Aldworth said she has heard that there is a rumour there may still be a buyer for the grey seal products.
“I wouldn’t necessarily bank on it not going ahead,” she said. “We are prepared for it to go ahead, and we will be there if it does.”
Hay Island is a rocky landscape that is part of the Scatarie Island Wilderness Area off Cape Breton.
Fisheries and Oceans has set a total allowable catch for 2012 of 60,000 grey seals throughout the Atlantic region and a quota for Hay island of 1,900, saying both numbers are a rollover from last year.
The 2012 season start dates for sealing fleets will be determined through consultation with Fisheries and Oceans scientists, according to the website. The commercial juvenile grey seal hunt usually runs from early February until early March, mainly along the eastern shore of Nova Scotia and in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Courtney wondered what happened to a proposed large-scale cull of grey seals.
“That isn’t happening either because none of the people in Ottawa has stepped up to the plate to make it happen.”
He suggested weather conditions this winter look favourable to the survival of grey seal pups on Hay Island and without a hunt, the population is sure to increase.
The Fisheries Resource Conservation Council has recommended a grey seal cull in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence in which about 73,000 animals would be killed in the first year and another 70,000 over the next four years.

chayes@cbpost.com