this is from harpseals.org a comprehensive, all volunteer site dedicated to ending the seal hunt.
THE SEALERS OF THE MAGDALEN ISLANDS AND PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND HAVE STARTED SLAUGHTERING HARP SEAL PUPS TODAY. THAT IS, THEY HAVE BEGUN KILLING THE FEW SEALS WHO SURVIVED THE WORST ICE CONDITIONS IN RECORDED HISTORY.
We sounded the alarm in early February: Where is the ice?
The year 2006 was declared the worst ice year in recorded history.
In late February and early March, the seal pups were born around the Magdalens and Prince Edward Island. The tour groups saw them. Paul and Heather McCartney saw them at the beginning of March. But where are they now?
Rebecca Aldworth of HSUS is there now to document the massacre. She was there with the McCartneys. Now, she finds broken up ice floes where there were large floes supporting newborn pups. She has seen mother seals but is struggling to find any babies. Few groups of pups have been found, most in the eastern Gulf around Cape Breton. It appears that our fears were realized: the thin ice has broken up, and many, if not most of the babies have drowned! Read the March 21st report here . Read the March 23rd report here.
Yet Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn is still allowing the slaughter of whatever seals remain to proceed?! News reports suggest that sealers may have to shoot them in the Gulf this year due to the lack of sturdy ice floes. The determination of the baby seal killers is truly remarkable.
It is interesting that Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn chose the International Day of Action to make his 2006-2010 Seal "Management Plan" announcement.
The planned slaughter for 2006 is 325,000 harp seals.
Read the details here. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) continues to claim that seals are "abundant." They use as a basis of comparison the 1970's, just after those years when the killing rates were about as high as they are now, and as a result, the seal population declined so severely that conservationists and marine scientists worried about extinction.
The DFO continues to claim that the slaughter is humane, despite video and eye-witness testimony to the contrary. Read Rebecca Aldworth's journal for details.
The DFO continues to claim that the "hunt" is well-regulated, despite video and eye-witness evidence of hundreds of violations of their own "humane" regulations, such as the "blinking-eye" test which is supposed to be conducted before the baby seal is skinned. The DFO has failed to prosecute any of these crimes.
Now, the famous, beautiful white babies who have been born on the sparse ice near the shores of the Magdalen Islands and Prince Edward Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, have shed that fuzzy white coat. They have no idea what the next weeks bode for them, as they become targets for the sealers of the Magdalen Islands and the North Shore of Quebec.
Now is the TIME FOR ACTION for seal defenders.
- Show your disgust at the seal slaughter. Keep organizing and attending protests, set up info tables, speak to groups, distribute leaflets. Targets: Canadian consulates, Red Lobster restaurants, other stores/restaurants that refuse polite requests to boycott Canadian seafood.
- Boycott Canadian seafood and Red Lobster and ask every seafood vendor to stop buying all Canadian seafood.
- DONATE to our seal campaign. We are the ONLY organization mounting a (piecemeal) nationwide ad campaign for the seals. We use your donations to fund billboards, radio commercials, print ads, TV commercials, etc. to promote the boycott of Canadian seafood.
- Send our videos to everyone you know.
- Buy shirts and other seal gear and generate conversation wherever you go.
- Write letters and emails and call the politicians who have signed 325,000 death warrants for baby seals.
The ice situation for 2006
So far, it seems that the seal pups are surviving the poor ice conditions. This year, ice has been over a month late in developing, compared to normal years. In February, the year 2006 was declared the worst ice year in recorded history by Environment Canada.
Read the ice report now for details.
We demanded a moratorium on the "hunt" in 2006 on the basis of this dangerous ice situation, that could have resulted in death by drowning for hundreds of thousands of seal pups.
The DFO didn't heed this demand. Though the DFO claims to be taking the Precautionary Approach, there is no evidence of this. The poor ice conditions this year may be "the new normal." How this will affect the seal population should be a serious concern of a government agency that applies the Precautionary Approach. Read a report on the uncertainty in the DFO "management" models.
Let Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn know what you think about the 2006-2010 Seal slaughter plan today.
Join the opposition momentum and show your disgust at the seal hunt on the INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ACTION FOR THE SEALS! Harpseals.org will be actively involved again in the Los Angeles and south Florida street demonstrations. We want to better our last year's efforts with even bigger and more animated demonstrations this year.
Get involved: Create or join an event in your hometown!
(It's time to kick some Canadian politician butt and show Darden restaurants our resolve to boycott Canadian seafood and steer their customers elsewhere.)
Last year's event was the largest ever assemblage of protests for the seals in the history of the seal hunt! Between March 13th and 15th, 2005, less than 2 weeks before the mass killing started, WORLDWIDE SEAL HUNT PROTESTS were simultaneously staged in over 50 cities and 23 countries around the world...
See the follow up and summaries of the 2005 events!
2005 CANADIAN SEAL HUNT REPORT:
With an official start date of March 29th, the annual Canadian harp seal massacre ("hunt") for 2005 was finally over by July...
Although harsh weather played to the seal's advantage early on in both phases of the massacre, (read details below of Quebec's "Gulf Front" and the Newfoundland Front), the seals ultimately lost the battle to the ever pursuing killers. As is always the case, they never really stood a chance...
The "official" public report from the government declaring the final "harvest numbers" for the 2005 season indicates the ridiculous quota of 319,000 baby animals (overall) had been reached. (because there is no official end date for obtaining the quota, it is always reached as long as the ice conditions permit.)And of course, the always plentiful "struck and lost" numbers weren't, and never are, figured in these final "official" quota numbers.
(see note below)
But none of this was unexpected...
With the support of the government's continuous and ever impressive efforts to help the sealers reach their bloody quota, it was just business as usual for the sealers.
Adding this years numbers to the previous 2 years of killing, the 2005 season ended the record breaking 3 year quota of 975,000 animals, with more than a MILLION seals killed overall...
Why and how can this continue?
The absurd amount of seal killing that continues year after year in Canada occurs for the same reasons it always has: vanity, greed, politics, and Newfoundland "lifestyle" choices.
And once again, as we reflect upon all aspects of the insane carnage of 2005, Harpseals.org vows to continue fighting until the government declares the killing finally over!
LEARN ABOUT THE STRATEGY TO MAKE THE 2005 MASSACRE THE LAST ONE EVER AND HOW YOU CAN HELP THE SEALS!
In the meantime, we anxiously await the next announcement of the new quota. Originally expected to be released in October, the timing of the announcement of the new quota numbers is a political hot potato for the Canadian government. The delay is not surprising due to the negative political pressures of the seal hunt. (That would be us!)
The government used to announce the quotas every year, but due to the massive public outcry it received after each announcement, decided it best to make the new quotas 3 year deal's so as to limit the public exposure.
As of January 10th, we're still waiting to hear the news, and now expect it to be announced in late February or just before the killing resumes in March, 2006.
Phase one: Quebec's Gulf Front: The "hunt" in this region was only open 5 days this year and most of the killing took place in the space of just 3.
Although harsh weather had prevented the sealers here from killing for the first few days, the total quota for the Gulf this season ended up being 107,000 seals.
Phase 2: The Newfoundland/ Labrador Front:
Reportedly, there were over 320 different sealing boats in the area for the second phase of this year's Canadian seal slaughter. The boats here are typically larger than in Quebec's Gulf of Saint Lawrence, and the area is more remote and has thicker ice.
But the predominent difference between these 2 phases of the slaughter is the method of killing: in the Gulf they mostly use hakapiks and shoot only a few, whereas on "The Front" they mostly use guns to kill the seals, then scoop them out of the water using hooks.
As a result, the "struck and lost" numbers (seals they shoot, but merely injure, or can't hook quickly enough, who then slip away under the ice to die), in this area are always higher than in the Gulf.
As for the killers themselves, our guess is the Newfie sealers are pretty much cut of the same cloth as the Gulf sealers: I'm sure they kill the seal babies with the same zealousness the Gulf killers exhibited.
In an attempt to play a more effective role in ending the killing, I witnessed the horror first hand this year, having had a surreal experience onboard the Sea Shepherd boat, Farley Mowat...
Read my exclusive: Tales and insight from the killing floesMy heart remained with the boat and its new crew as it left the port of Saint Pierre (my port of leave) on 4/09 and traveled to the Newfoundland front.
Read the 2004 seal kill summary.
THE STORY OF THE FAMOUS WHITE BABIES:
Harp seals are undoubtedly some of the most beautiful and gentle creatures on earth. Sadly, it seems, this gentle nature also plays a part in the animal's demise as the Harp seals own the unfortunate status of ANNUALLY SUFFERING THE LARGEST SLAUGHTER OF ANY MARINE MAMMAL SPECIES ON THE PLANET.
Every spring, great numbers of Harp seals gather together on the stark ice floes off the Canadian Atlantic coastline of Newfoundland, Labrador and Quebec to give birth to their babies.
Commonly referred to as "whitecoats", these famous babies are indescribably astounding in their innocence, individuality, and beauty. Their images have been captured in a thousand ways and distributed around the world to become one of the world's most recognizable and well known symbols of "cuteness" and innocent beauty.
It is ironic and sad to note that all this recognition does nothing to help their plight or future as these babies are the victims of a brutal annual massacre of their species by a politically driven, propaganda spewing government.
Every year, when the time is "right" (as soon as the ice conditions permit), a small group of caucasian "hunters" find their way to the floes and proceed to club, bludgeon, stun, shoot, and dismember thousands of young and adult Harp seals in a brutal manner of which most people can hardly imagine.
As many as 45% of the animals are skinned alive and the males are routinely dismembered for their penis bone alone. ("illegal" by the ridiculously unenforced set of "government standards and rules overseeing the hunt").
Moreover, independent observers have noted that as many as 1 out of 3 "targeted" seals slip away wounded into the ice holes and sea leads to be uncounted, unnoted, and unused in any way, shape, or form.
This annual killing of the innocents is not only unbelievably cruel and brutal but also makes no economic sense.
See an economic examination to learn how and why the seal hunt is a yearly financial loser for the economy of Canada.
IT'S NOT ABOUT THE MEAT:
Only small amounts of the seal's meat is processed and utilized in any manner. (DFO regulations state that "either the pelt OR the meat must be used for each animal.") It is rarely eaten by non indigenous peoples for food due to its relatively heavy fatty and oily composition. Small amounts are used for the pet food trade or fur farms, while the rest is simply left to rot on the ice.
IT'S NOT ABOUT "SUBSISTENCE":
Few natives or indigenous peoples are involved in the taking of the seals off the coastlines of Newfoundland, Quebec, and Labrador. Learn more.
AND IT'S NOT ABOUT SEAL OIL PRODUCTS:
Buyers from around the world continue to shun many seal oil products produced by pro-hunt businesses. This makes perfect sense as many of these oil products are produced for the vanity and health markets and it seems most consumers can't get excited about using a face cream or "healthy" skin supplement made from horrifically murdered baby seals.
Though the industry tries to hide the fact that their omega-3 oil supplements come from young seals by calling them "marine oils," many consumers are savvy enough to read the fine print and purchase flax seed or hemp seed oil instead.
SO WHY DOES THE HUNT CONTINUE?
Although the complete answer as to why the massacre still continues year after year without the support of the Canadian public is complex, the main reasons are:
1) the continuing (and rising) price for SEAL PELTS (see explanatory paragraph below), and,
2) the government SUBSIDIES that artificially prop up the market value of the seal "hunt" .
3) The way the government rationalizes these subsidies to their people and the rest of the world is through the use of an extensive and continuous (at taxpayers expense) PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN that seeks to blame the seals for the decline of the cod fishery.
SO WHAT ABOUT THE PELTS?
Although the past has always seen fluctuations in the world demand for seal pelts, today's modern times indicate there is a CURRENT GROWING MARKET for baby and adult Harp and hooded seal pelts in some parts of the world.
Keep in mind: SEAL PELTS ARE OUTLAWED IN THE UNITED STATES and WHITECOAT PELTS ARE ILLEGAL IN EUROPE... (although non-whitecoat seal pelts are still legal)
Although it is a fact that certain individuals and corporations do profit from harp seal pelts, it is also true that the pelt business is NOT ECONOMICALLY VIABLE as the actual market value of the pelts (when factored in with all the expenses that go along with hunting seals), is not sustainable on its own.
Learn more information and details about the seal pelt industry.
Comments