Commercial seal hunt off Canada’s East Coast one of the worst on record

HALIFAX – As the annual East Coast seal hunt draws to a close, federal officials have confirmed this season was one of the worst since the early 1990s, when the industry struggled to recover from a European ban on white pelts from young harp seals.

The total number of harp seals killed in the 2011 commercial slaughter was about 38,000 – less than 10 per cent of the allowable catch, set at 400,000.

The industry’s latest slump is the result of a shrinking world market and poor ice conditions in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and off the north coast of Newfoundland, where harp seal mothers need large ice pans to give birth to their young.

Last year, the European Union’s 27 member states banned importing most seal products, a move that has depressed pelt prices to between $20 and $30 – barely enough for seal hunters to cover the cost of fuel and insurance for their small boats.

The use of large offshore boats was banned in 1987, the same year the federal government banned the killing of whitecoats. The United States banned importing seal products in 1972.

Last week, the Canadian government said it will move ahead with its bid to challenge the latest European ban through the World Trade Organization, even though Ottawa is also trying to secure a free trade deal with the EU.

The European Parliament adopted a resolution last week suggesting the WTO challenge should be dropped before the free trade talks move ahead. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said he hopes to complete negotiations by 2012.

Meanwhile, animal welfare groups are pressing ahead with media campaigns aimed at stopping the commercial hunt, which has been in operation since the mid-1700s.

On Tuesday, the Canadian wing of Humane Society International held a news conference in Toronto to release graphic video footage that the group shot during this season’s hunt.

The group says the images reveal flagrant violations of Canadian law and international guidelines for the humane killing of animals.

"We’ve seen this year the lowest kill level that we’ve witnessed in nearly two decades, but despite the reduced number of seals that are being killed, the cruelty is escalating," the group’s executive director, Rebecca Aldworth, said in an interview.

"There were only a handful of vessels participating in the hunt, and yet we were seeing constant violations of the marine mammal regulations and other cruel acts that no thinking, compassionate person could ever accept if they could see it for themselves."

Aldworth said she and a film crew recorded images of conscious seals being impaled on metal hooks and dragged across the ice, as well as wounded seal pups left to suffer for prolonged periods. She alleged Fisheries officers witnessed violations, but did nothing.

A call to federal Fisheries Minister Keith Ashfield was not returned Tuesday, but a spokesman for him emailed a statement saying Humane Society International had yet to provide the department with any video images related to the hunt.

"Alleged infractions are taken very seriously and investigated by DFO officers," Frank Stanek said.

Fisheries officers monitor the hunt through aerial and vessel patrols, inspections of vessels at sea and at landing sites and buying facilities, he added.

"The Canadian seal harvest is humane and guided by rigorous animal welfare principles, which are internationally recognized by most independent observers."

The federal government has long said the hunt is a tightly regulated event that is humane and economically important to coastal communities, particularly in Newfoundland and eastern Quebec.

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May said the Fisheries Department should end its financial support for the hunt as it looks for ways to find $74 million in savings over the 2012-2014 fiscal period.

"Instead of slashing valuable programs, it’s time to stop throwing taxpayers’ dollars at the commercial seal hunt," she said in a statement. "For less money we now spend propping up this dying industry, we could buy out sealing licenses and develop sustainable economic alternatives for coastal communities, like seal watching."

The landed value of the commercial hunt was $1.3 million in 2010, she said, adding that the WTO case is expected to cost well in excess of $10 million.

The Fisheries Department has said it recently struck a deal to export seal products to China. However, officials later said the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has yet to sign off on the deal.

Sheryl Fink, a spokeswoman for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said Canada’s sealing industry is in decline, despite the promises behind the Chinese venture.

"It’s on its way out," Fink said in an interview from Guelph, Ont. "The best solution for the sealers … would be to transition people out and provide compensation."

Last week, Fink’s organization released its own video footage from the hunt.

"The violations and the cruelty we saw at the hunt made it one of the worst that I’ve seen in the 10 years I’ve been out there," she said. "We have video of an animal that is alive and conscious and biting at a boat hook when it is hooked through the eye and dragged onto a boat."

As for China, Fink said her group has been thwarted in its bid to obtain a copy of the seal product agreement between the Canadian and Chinese governments.

Aldworth, a native Newfoundlander who grew up in a sealing community, said that when she travelled to China in April, officials there told her they have yet to grant any permits to Canadian processors.