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Seal hunting or '''sealing''' refers to the practice, history and industries associated with both "personal" and "commercial" hunting and killing of Seals . HISTORY Historically, seal coats have been prized for both their beauty and their warmth. Seal oil was often used as lamp fuel, lubricating and cooking oil, for processing such materials as leather and jute, and as a constituent of soap. The meat was an important source of protein, vitamin A and iron for the Eskimo 1. Reports from modern-day seal-meat connoisseurs vary: some reports praise its delicate flavour 2, others claim it is unfit for human consumption 3. Archeological evidence indicates that the Native Americans and Native Canadians have been hunting seals for at least 4,000 years. There is also evidence that seals were hunted in northwest Europe and the Baltic Sea more than 10,000 years ago. The first killing of seals for commercial purposes is said to have occurred in 1515, when a cargo of fur seal skins from Uruguay was sent to Spain for sale in the markets of Seville . Sealing began to become more prevalent in the late 1700s when seal herds in the southern hemisphere began to be exploited by Whalers . In 1778, English sealers brought back from the Isle Of Georgia and Magellan Strait as many as 40,000 seal skins and 2,800 tons of elephant seal oil. In 1791, 102 vessels, manned by 3000 sealers, were hunting seals south of the equator. Most of the pelts taken during these expeditions would be sold in China . The peak of the sealing industry occurred in 1821, when Lloyd's Register had 164 sealing vessels on their records. However, by 1830, most seal stocks had been seriously depleted, and Lloyd's records only showed one full-time sealing vessel on its books. Seals have been hunted in Atlantic Canada since the early 16th century. The Newfoundland seal hunt became an annually recorded event starting in 1723. By the late 1800s, sealing had become the second most important industry in Newfoundland, second only to cod fishing. Since then, a number of nations have outlawed the hunting of seals and other marine mammals. Today, commercial sealing is conducted by only five nations: Greenland , Namibia , Norway , Russia , and Canada . The United States , which had formerly been heavily involved in the sealing industry, now maintains a complete ban on the commercial hunting of marine mammals, however, indigenous peoples are still allowed to hunt a small number of seals each year 4. MODERN SEALING Hunting is now controlled by quota regulations based on international recommendations by the International Council For The Exploration Of The Sea (ICES). Canada In Canada, the season for the commercial hunt of Harp is from November 15 to May 15. 5 The majority of sealing, however, occurs in late March in The Gulf Of St. Lawrence , and during the first or second week of April off Newfoundland, in an area known as "The Front". This peak spring period is generally what is referred to as the "Canadian Seal Hunt" 6. In 2006, the St. Lawrence seal hunt officially started on March 25. This date was initially uncertain, due to thin ice conditions caused by the year's milder temperatures. In 2003, the three-year harp seal quota granted by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans was increased to a maximum of 975,000 animals, with a maximum of 350,000 animals in any two consecutive years. In 2006, 325,000 harp seals, as well as 10,000 hooded seals and 10,400 Grey Seal s will be killed. An additional 10,000 animals are allocated for hunting by Aboriginal peoples. The Canadian seal hunt is monitored by the Canadian government and animal rights groups. However, although approximately 70% of Canadian seals killed are killed on "The Front", the vast majority of private monitors focus on the St. Lawrence hunt, due to its more convenient location.7 The 2006 St. Lawrence leg of the hunt was officially closed on Apr. 3, 2006. Sealers had exceeded the quota by 1,000 animals by the time the hunt was closed 8. =Regulations
Canadian sealing regulations include, among others 9:
And the following stipulations:
The commercial hunting of infant harp seals ( Whitecoats ), and infant hooded seals ( Bluebacks ), was banned in Canada in 1987, under pressure from animal rights groups. Now, seals may only be killed legally once they have started Moulting (from 12 to 15 days of age for harp seals), as this coincides with the time when they are abandoned by their mothers. These pups, who have not yet completely moulted are known as " Ragged-jackets ". Once the pups have completely moulted, they are called " Beaters ". =Export Pelts: Canada's biggest market for seal pelts is Norway. http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/04/12/seal.hunt.ap/ Carino Limited is one of Newfoundland's largest seal pelt producers. Carino (CAnada-RIeber-NOrway) is marketing its seal pelts mainly through its parent company, Rieber Skinn A/S, Bergen, Norway . http://66.249.93.104/search?q=cache:Z6XwFFBUxGQJ:www.fishaq.gov.nl.ca/fdp/ProjectReports/fdp_248.pdf+seal+pelts+norway&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1 Canada sold pelts to 11 countries in 2004, with Norway , Germany , Greenland , and China purchasing the largest quantities. Other buying countries were Finland , Denmark , France , Hong Kong , Greece , South Korea , and Russia 10. Meat: Asia remains the principal market for seal meat exports.www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/seal-phoque/reports-rapports/mgtplan-plangest2003/mgtplan-plangest2003_e.htm One of Canada's market access priorities for 2002, was to "continue to press Korean authorities to obtain the necessary approvals for the sale of seal meat for human consumption in and South Korea purchased seal meat from Canada. http://www.seashepherd.org/seals/seals_seal_hunt_facts.html Greenland Although official figures for the Greenland seal hunt are not available, the government of Canada estimates that 20,000 to 25,000 seals are killed in Greenland annually 11. In Jan. 2006, the government of Greenland banned imports of Canadian seal skins, citing fears that Canadian seals are brutally beaten to death. The boycott, however, may just be an effort to distance Greenland's own seal hunt from Canada's, and spare themselves negative press in the process. The ban may further serve to protect Greenland's domestic sealing industry. http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060109-100956-1841r Namibia More recent figures for Namibia are also difficult to obtain, however in the year 2000, the Namibian government approved a quota of 67,000 Cape fur seals, including 60,000 pups and 7,000 bulls. http://www.wag.co.za/marine/namibia_to_cull_67_000_seals.html Norway The Norwegian sealing season runs from January to September. In 2005, approximately 15,000 seals (including 10,000 harp and 5,000 hooded seals) were harvested. http://www.ssb.no/english/yearbook/tab/tab-374.html In 2005, Norway began, controversially, to allow foreign hunters to take part in the annual seal hunt.http://odin.dep.no/fkd/english/news/news/047041-990012/dok-bn.html Norwegian seal-hunters are only permitted to use the rifle to kill adult seals, while young seals are put to death with a hakapik or rifle. The hakapik is also used on seals which have been shot in order to make sure they are dead. http://odin.dep.no/odin/engelsk/norway/environment/032091-991010/index-dok000-b-n-a.html Russia The Russian seal hunt has not been well monitored since the break-up of the Soviet Union http://www.pinnipeds.org/species/caspian.htm, however, it is known that the annual seal harvest quota in 1998 was 35,000 animals. http://www.highnorth.no/news/nedit.asp?which=175 There have been reports that, in Russia, many whitecoat pups are not properly killed and are transported, while injured, to processing areas. In January 2000, a bill to ban seal hunting was passed by Russian parliament 273 votes to 1, however it was vetoed by President Vladimir Putin . http://marinebio.org/species.asp?id=302 THE SEALING DEBATE Due to Canada's comparatively large size of seal hunt, Canada has become the center of the sealing debate. Cruelty to animals > Sealing opponents such as IFAW often claim that the method used to kill seals is inhumane. According to recent studies done by the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA), however, a hakapik, when used properly, kills the animal relatively quickly and painlessly. Several American studies carried out from 1969-1972 in the Pribilof Islands of Alaska came to the same conclusion. The Royal Commission On Seals And Sealing In Canada claims that properly-performed clubbing is at least as humane as the methods used in commercial slaughterhouses. According to the Department Of Fisheries And Oceans Canada (DFO), these studies "have consistently proven that the club or hakapik is an efficient tool designed to kill the animal quickly and humanely." Videos recorded during Canada's annual seal hunt have revealed sights of seals seemingly killed in ways that violate government regulations, and claims have been put forth that the seals are often skinned alive. http://www.canadiansealhunt.com/skinnedalive.html However, CVMA and Malouf Commission studies have stated that seals have a swimming reflex, which causes their bodies to move after death. They concede, however, that not every case can merely be dismissed as a "swimming reflex". The CVMA admits that 87% of the hunters they observed "failed to palpate the skull or check for the corneal reflex before proceeding to hook or bleed the seal or go to another seal." This is a violation of Canada's sealing regulations. A study of the 2001 Canadian seal hunt conducted by five independent veterinarians came to the conclusion that although the hakapik, when properly used, is humane, many hunters were not using the hakapik properly. This was leading to "considerable and unacceptable suffering". In 17% of the cases they observed there were no detectable lesions of the skull whatsoever. In numerous other cases, the seals had to be struck multiple times before they were considered "unconscious".http://www.ifaw.org/ifaw/dfiles/file_95.pdf PDF file, 108 KB Contrary to how the report is sometimes interpreted http://www.canadiansealhunt.com/skinnedalive.html, however, it does not indicate that the seals were skinned alive. The still-conscious animals had been bled out before skinning. Although bleeding out conscious seals is a violation of regulations in itself, they were dead before skinning began. Neither did the report recommend disuse of the controversial hakapik. Rather, it recommended more training, mandatory blink-reflex tests and the cessation of open-water hunting. The report also recommended that seals be bled out immediately after clubbing, in order to ensure that the animals are dead and do not regain consciousness, as is sometimes reported to happen.http://www.hsus.org/marine_mammals/protect_seals/news_reports_2005_seal_hunt/news_from_the_2005_seal_hunt_march_29.html Ecological feasibility According to the DFO, the harp seal population is now stable at about five million animals, three times as many seals as in the 1970s, and the annual quota of roughly 325,000 animals does not significantly impact the harp seal population. Protestors often respond that this figure represents only a fraction of the total number of seals killed, because many seals' bodies fall into the water or under the ice and are not counted. The CVMA has replied that this is untrue for the Canadian seal hunt, and that the Canadian seals that have been "struck and lost" is less than five percent (16,250 animals) of the total harvest. They suggest that this is because, in Canada, the majority of seals are killed on the ice, not in the sea. http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/media/infomedia/2005/im01_e.htm Greenpeace has further stated that the quota is an unreliable estimate of the total kill, not only due to "struck and lost" statistics, but also because seals with pelt damage are discarded and not accounted for. Economic impact According to Canadian authorities, the value of the 2004 seal harvest was $16.5 million (CDN), which significantly contributes to the income of thousands of fisherman and First Nations peoples. For some sealers, they claim, proceeds from the hunt make up a third of their annual income. Critics, however, say that this represents only a tiny fraction of the $600-million Newfoundland fishing industry. Sealing opponents also say that $16.5 million is insignificant, compared to the funding required to regulate and subsidize the hunt. Although Canadian authorities deny that any such subsidizing exists, some unsubstantiated reports from protest groups have gone as far as to say that the hunt costs the Canadian people between $825 million and $1.65 billion per year. http://www.sealhunt.ca/ These numbers are possibly inflated in order to aggrandize the efficacy of Boycotts of Canadian seafood, which the Center For Consumer Freedom has found to have been seriously exaggerated. http://www.consumerfreedom.com/news_detail.cfm/headline/2998 Some critics, such as the McCartney's (see below), have suggested that promoting that area as an eco-tourism site would be far more lucrative than the annual harvest. The seal hunt as a cull In March 2005, Greenpeace asked DFO to "dispel the myth that seals are hampering the recovery of cod stocks." In doing so, they implied that the seal hunt is, at least in part, a Cull designed to increase cod stocks. Cod fishing has traditionally been a key part of the Atlantic fishery, and an important part of the economy of Newfoundland and Labrador. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans have responded that there is no connection between the annual seal harvest and the cod fishery, and that the seal hunt is "established on sound conservation principles". Protests Many animal-protection groups, such as the IFAW, and the World Society For The Protection Of Animals (WSPA) encourage people to petition against the harvest. Seal hunt protests have recently been organized in a number of countries but attendance was small in comparison to the protest's heyday in the early 1980s. Some protestors use images of Whitecoats , despite Canada's complete ban on the commercial hunting of suckling pups. The HSUS , explains this with saying images of the legally hunted "ragged jackets", can be nearly indistinguishable from those of whitecoats. Also, they report official DFO kill reports show 97% of the seals killed over the past five years have been under 3 months of age, and the majority has been less than one month old. {Link without Title} On Mar. 26, 2006, seven protestors were arrested in the Gulf of St. Lawrence for violating the terms of their observer permits. By law, observers must maintain a 10-meter distance between themselves and the sealers. Allegedly, the protestors violated this condition. http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/03/26/sealers-sunday060326.html?ref=rss On Mar. 31, 2006, as part of a counter-protest, Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams encouraged people in the province to boycott Costco after the retailer decided to stop carrying seal-oil capsules. http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/03/31/williams060331.html Costco has stated that politics played no role in their decision to remove the capsules from shelves. On April 4, 2006 Costco had again decided to place the seal oil capsules back on store shelves. {Link without Title} There is a new petition to boycott Costco for reneging on its promise not to sell seal oil and supporting the seal slaughter. {Link without Title} Celebrity involvement Numerous celebrities have opposed the seal hunt, such as: Richard Dean Anderson , Charles Aznavour , Kim Bassinger , Juliette Binoche , http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=qw1143581761520B253, , Franz Weber , John Paul DeJoria , Ed Begley, Jr. , Dave Foreman , Farley Mowat , Linda Blair , Berkeley Breathed , the Red Hot Chili Peppers . http://www.harpseals.org/hunt/press/index.html In March 2006, actress Brigitte Bardot notably spoke out against the seal hunt. Also in that month, Paul and Heather Mills McCartney toured the Gulf Of St. Lawrence sealing grounds, and spoke out against the seal hunt. On 2006-03-27 , singer Morrissey released a statementhttp://true-to-you.net/morrissey_news_060327_02 saying that he will not include any dates in Canada on his current world tour, in protest of the hunt. Canadian actress Pamela Anderson also spoke out against the annual seal hunt. She had hoped to visit Ottawa on April 1st, to meet with Prime Minister Stephen Harper to discuss the issue but the meeting was rejected. The prime minister also turned down a similar request by Brigitte Bardot, who traveled to Ottawa in March to protest the hunt. http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=1781174 DEMAND FOR SEAL PRODUCTS Before the hunt in 2000, the sealing industry admitted that the demand for both seal meat and seal pelts was down. In 2001, Canadian government trade statistics revealed that 51% of Canada's two million pelts from seals killed between 1982-1999 had been sold. http://marinebio.org/species.asp?id=302 Of late, high prices have been obtained for seal pelts at auctions in Canada ($70 per pelt up from $15 in the mid-1990s) and prices are even higher now than before the protests of the 1980s. http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1104009859081_32?hub=Canada. Recently, high-end fashion designers such as Donatella Versace and Gucci , as well as a number of high-profile graduates from major fashion schools, have begun to use seal pelts. EXTERNAL LINKS Pro-sealing views Anti-sealing views
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