As March approaches, Canada will soon be faced with an “age old, yearly tradition”, the Seal Hunt. The hunt occurs from November to May, with the bulk of it occurring in March. This topic is very controversial and sensitive to Canadians. With 69 % of Canadians opposed to the hunt, why does the government continue to allow and even promote it? A friend of mine brought up the point it depends whether you are from the east coast or not. We need to know the history, and the facts, and try to get to the bottom of this once and for all.
History
Seal hunting was an Inuit tradition dating back almost 3000 years ago. In the early 1700s, European Settlers from the North Shore of the St. Lawrence and the northeast coast of Newfoundland began hunting seals commercially. By the late 1700s, offshore hunting began. The early commercial hunters were hunting for seal oil, it was used for lamps, cooking oil, processing of leather and soap. I am going to go out on a limb here and say seal oil is outdated so why is this continuing? Seal Pelts, have been used traditionally for Inuit clothing, they are still popular in Norway, Greenland, Russia and China. Seal meat is also part of traditional Inuit diet, and a delicacy in the above countries.
Did you know the Newfoundland seal hunt almost disappeared during the Second World War, due to the seal boats being used over seas, the decline continued into the 1950’s. After Newfoundland became a province in 1949, sealing became less necessary for economic survival. So why didn’t it die out? I cannot find a clear answer on that. My guess seal fur became fashionable, and so the hunt “bounced back” (I guess because the timelines don’t provide any reasoning.) In the 1960s the seal hunt became public, resulting in anti-sealing activism. In the 1980s, EU bans seal products and the seal market collapses, in response Canada bans hunting of blue back and white coat seals.
In the 1990s, the collapse of the Cod Fishery, left many fisherman at an economic loss and so they in turn joined the hunt. The hunt was then subsidized in an effort to provide the fishermen with income to make up for their loss of cod fishery. Instead of the hunt dying down the government invested millions promoting the sealing effort. DFO claims that they have not subsidized the hunt since 2001 and that the hunt is economically viable. So the hunt has continued since making about 16 million a year, killing 200,00--300,000 seals.
What about the First Nations?
We all know that the Inuit eat seals, and use seal pelts for clothing. But are they involved in the “Traditional Commercial Hunt”? The truth is the First Nations kill only about 10,000 seals a year, less than 1 % of the seals killed. The Inuit use all the parts of the seals for food and fur for their own traditional purposes. This is allowed and most Canadian groups are not actually concerned with the natives hunting. I agree and believe that the First Nations should be allowed to hunt if anyone is. The majority of hunters are actually white commercial fishermen from the east coast, who hunt to supplement their income when fishing is down.
Activism
There are many groups that are anti-sealing and anti-seal hunt. This should be great news right? With activism comes “animal rights groups” that are anti killing animals, they care more about the fact that the seals are cute and should not be slaughtered, rather than the actual consequences. I agree, but cuteness is unfortunately not a big enough factor, and these groups don’t have all the facts. A lot of them think that it is Canada’s indigenous people involved in the hunt, and that the government is funding the hunt.
Seal Product Bans
Europe has banned fur and fur products. Other countries have started doing so as well. Even China, has started banning seal meat from Canada. However, the US wants to take it a step further and ban all Canadian Fish products. I do not agree with this, this would take away from fishermen’s incomes, who are not hunting. Also most exported fish are from the west coast, since the east coast stocks have been in jeopardy since the collapse. This is an unfair way to stop the hunt. But what is unfair that Canada allows it.
Seals vs Cod Science
Seals are predators in the oceanic food web, and are often blamed for the seal cod collapse. The truth is both harp and grey seals actually do eat cod (about 3 % of their diet) but they also eat predator fish of cod. Seals also face predation themselves from polar bears, killer whales, sharks, and humans (obviously). There is no scientific proof that the seals are responsible for the cod collapse, and to allow the hunt or cull in response to this is a backwards attempt to solve the problem.
The truth is overfishing, and a lack of listening to scientists is what caused the cod collapse, not seals. The government feels responsible but instead of admitting their mistake, they promoted the hunt as way to overcome the economic loss from fishing, and they continue to allow it by producing one-sided reports. Scientists agree that there are many uncertainties in the seal-cod dynamics but that seals and cod exist in a complex ecosystem, where there are no simple solutions to the recovery of cod stocks.
Seals play an integral role in northwest Atlantic ecosystems by helping all fish populations to thrive. Harp seals are opportunistic feeders, and consume only small amounts of many different species. In a 2011 report by DFO, Minister Ashfield tries to justify a cull of grey seals, but the report clearly states that a cull could easily wipe out the remaining cod stocks. Since Grey seals consume many predators of cod, cod stocks are recovering in the area with the highest number of grey seals.
Conclusions
The Seal Hunt is an outdated process that needs to stop, Canadians are against it, so is the rest of the world, so why is the Canadian government continuing to support it. Humane Society International (HSI) Canada says: “A grey seal cull will serve nothing more than the ambitions of political opportunists playing to certain sectors of the fishing industry”. The problem with the Seal Hunt has become so political, where Canadian politicians fear they will lose votes if they cut it, regardless of how they look to the rest of the world.
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