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Today history was made in Ottawa. Liberal Senator Mac Harb’s private member bill calling for the end of Canada’s commercial seal hunt was unanimously approved to pass for second reading. Putting an end to Canada’s cruel and wasteful commercial seal hunt will FINALLY be debated in the Senate!
This is Senator Harb’s third attempt to get the bill through. In 2010 He failed to find a seconder and the motion died a swift death. In 2011 it was reported that Conservative Senator Lowell Murray seconded the motion but other senators voted against allowing the proposal to appear for discussion on the order paper. Senator Harb, undeterred, returned for a third attempt and this time the motion was seconded by liberal Senator Larry Campbell and was then passed unanimously to move forward for second reading and debate.
Senator Harb’s bill calls for an end to the commercial seal hunt and compensation to be given to sealers. The bill does not target or affect the Inuit subsistence hunt which is also exempt from the EU trade ban on seal products.
Reaction to this momentous event has been swift. Humane Society International/Canada issued the following statement:
Senator Harb’s bill is timely and would effectively end the commercial seal slaughter in Canada. HSI/Canada further proposes that any legislation to end the seal slaughter be paired with a federal sealing industry buyout. This plan would involve the federal government ending the commercial seal slaughter, providing immediate compensation to sealers and investing in economic alternatives in the communities involved. Polling shows half of sealers holding an opinion are already in support of this plan and the overwhelming majority of Canadians are willing to fund it. Given sealers and other Canadians are willing to move beyond commercial sealing, it is time our government acted.”
“The sealing industry had been dying for years,” said Green Party leader Elizabeth May. “It’s time to stop providing life support to this disappearing industry by ending the massive government subsidies. Taxpayers’ money is better spent creating sustainable economic opportunities in coastal communities.”
Senator Harb’s bill is supported by public opinion polls that repeatedly show the majority of Canadians would like to see an end to the commercial seal hunt. At the very least, the Canadian government should debate this issue on behalf of those citizens. It’s time.
When asked about the chances of the bill ultimately being passed, Senator Harb replied, “I’m a realist. I do believe the government and the Senate will not allow me to get it through. But I want to get the discussion going, whether they like it or not. That’s democracy.“ Whether or not this bill is ultimately successful, there is no doubt in anyone’s mind this marks a turning point in Canada. As the Chronicle Herald pointed out: “But the bill is another hint that the days of unwavering loyalty to the seal hunt are coming to an end.”
Reaction from the pro-sealing camp has also been swift. Sealing industry representatives have spoken against calls to end the unprofitable seal hunt, claiming Canada’s sealing industry is “very much alive and well.” They provide some disingenuous facts to back up those dubious claims.
Exports between 2005 and 2011 were over $70 million (US) and seal products were exported to 35 different countries.
Here, they neglect to mention the profits and exports have been declining with each passing year. In 2011 the seal hunt brought in under $1 million, a figure dwarfed by the millions of dollars the Canadian government spends each year to subsidize the annual slaughter. As well, substantial markets to seal products have closed since 2005. The EU banned seal products in 2010 and Russia – which accounted for 90% of exports – banned sealskins last August. Markets in China, long-promised by the Canadian government, have not materialized.
The price for seal pelts has increased from 2009 levels at $15 a pelt to $20 – $25 a pelt in 2010 and 2011 and $32 in 2012.
Hmmmm, just a tad misleading to claim sealskin prices have increased this year when the Newfoundland government gave $3.6M to a processing company to buy all the seal skins to stockpile in case markets pick up in future! And let’s not forget the sum in excess of $17,000 the government paid a St. John’s furrier to shill sealskin at a recent international fur expo at which the only country present that did have a trade ban on seal products was Canada!!
In my opinion, an industry with a dwindling profit margin relying on subsidies from Canadian taxpayers and bailouts from the federal and provincial governments just to keep afloat is clearly NOT “alive and well.” In my opinion, that is a drain on taxpayers should should be ended.
But of course Senator Céline Hervieux-Payette is blaming it all on the Vegetarian Lobby armed with pointy carrots and a secret agenda to turn the world into tofu-eating tree-huggers. And she also wants to market seal meat for our cats and dogs. Oh Senator. Don’t you remember? They tried feeding seal meat to minks on fur farms. The minks all died.
A frank and honest discussion about Canada’s cruel and wasteful commercial seal hunt is long-overdue. Let’s start talking!
There is a DFO letter making the rounds online, defending the 2012 harp seal Total Allowable Catch (TAC) which was set at an unsustainably high 400,000 last week. The letter is signed by Morley Knight, Director-General of Resource Management at DFO, and attempts to mislead convince the public the TAC was set “in accordance with the internationally recognized precautionary approach.”
It’s not surprising DFO has gone into repair mode in response to the bashlash to the news the Fisheries Minister had ignored the advice of his own scientists and had set the 2012 harp seal Total Allowable Catch at the request of sealing industry executives. Both IFAW and HSI condemned the TAC. My own letter, representing Atlantic Canadians, was published in four newspapers.
Nor is it surprising a government bureaucrat signed the editorial defending the TAC; it is highly unlikely any of the ignored scientists would agree to put their name on such a work of fiction.
(1) The Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat concluded in its most recent Science Advisory Report the harp seal herd is in decline and the 2012 TAC should not exceed 300,000, as anything higher would not respect DFO’s management plan; and
(2) DFO clearly stated the 400,000 TAC was guided in part by “the unanimous recommendation of industry representatives.”
Setting TACs to appease the sealing industry while ignoring scientific advice is not “in accordance with the internationally recognized precautionary approach,” although Mr. Knight seems to expect the public to believe it is.
DFO has a long history of basing conservation decisions based on political expediency rather than science. DFO mismanaged cod into commercial extinction and has consistently failed to protect endangered species such as porbeagle shark and sockeye salmon for “socio-economic” reasons. Now it is placing the future of harp seals at risk.
28. March 2012 · Write a comment	· Categories: Anti-Sealing, Weblogs · Tags: cull, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, DFO, European Union, grey seal, Hay Island, Keith Ashfield, Labrador, Magdalen Islands, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, seal, seal hunt, slaughter, southern Gulf of St. Lawrence, Stephen Harper, The Front	
Sealer about to beat to death 2- or 3-week old pup still almost completely covered in whitecoat Photo: Sheryl Fink/IFAW 2012
I was reading an article in the Ottawa Citizen this morning detailing how the government’s failure to set start dates for the commercial seal hunt in Newfoundland was causing wide-spread concern for the problems it would pose for rural towns along the east coast. Featured in the article were doomsday-style quotes by Canadian Sealers Association executive Frank Pinhorn and Bonavista Mayor Betty Fitzgerald. There were warnings about rapidly expanding hordes of voracious harp seals patrolling the coastline devouring all the cod and dire predictions that if the the hordes weren’t ”controlled” (read: slaughtered via club, hakapik and rifle) the fish would disappear and so would all the jobs on the east coast.
It is difficult to discern if Pinhorn and Fitzgerald are honestly deluded about seals and cod, or are guilty of wilfully spreading misinformation. In any event, both are incorrect in their recent statements to media.
Pinhorn speaks of the “growing seal population,” claiming it is at a record-high of nine to 10 million, while Fitzgerald insists the seal population must be controlled to protect fish stocks. Both Pinhorn and Fitzgerald need to read the latest Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat’s Science Advisory Report in which DFO scientists Mike Hammill and Garry Stenson advise the harp seal population is declining, with a current population of approximately 7 million individuals, and accordingly, the Total Allowable Catch should be reduced by 25%. There has never been credible science supporting these wild claims that seals are preventing fish stocks from rebounding after years of gross human overfishing. In fact, for those who bother investigating the issue, there is an emerging wealth of information to the contrary.
Fitzgerald and Pinhorn are guilty of the sort of irresponsible scaremongering that promotes the misconception seals must be culled to protect fish stocks. In truth, science indicates seals play an important role in our complex marine ecosystem and should be protected for the overall health of our oceans. Fitzgerald and Pinhorn would do well to quit the melodrama and stick to the facts.
In terms of claims that “lack of an April seal hunting season could pose a problem for rural towns along the coast,” the only problem the cancellation of the 2012 Newfoundland harp seal hunt poses is the sealers would miss out on their annual beer-swilling baby seal-bashing social event. As one sealer told Paul Watson years ago, “Every year we gets to go out on the ice, get away from the old lady, drink beer with the boys and whack seals” and as sealer Desmond Adams told media a few years ago, “We all go out for the love of it rather than the money, which isn’t there anymore.” This is not a commercial seal hunt or a hunt for subsistence – this is a yearly social event for people who love beating and shooting to death screaming seal pups. And Canadian taxpayers are footing the bill. That, to me, is a very real problem.
16. March 2012 · Write a comment	· Categories: Anti-Sealing, Weblogs · Tags: Cape Breton, Cape fur seal, cull, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, DFO, grey seal, Hay Island, Labrador, Magdalen Islands, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, seal, seal hunt, slaughter, southern Gulf of St. Lawrence, Stephen Harper, subsidies	
Tomorrow is International Day of Action for Seals, with demonstrations being held across Canada, in the US, and around the world to show opposition to the slaughter of seals in countries such as Canada and Namibia.
Some may be saying: “It is 2012, why has this slaughter not been shut down yet?!” You need to read this inspiring blog by IFAW’s Sheryl Fink, which shows the giant strides the anti-sealing campaign has made in the past few years, and the huge victories won for seals.
I first got directly involved in the seal hunt issue in 2006 and am amazed at the accomplishments of the past six years and deeply touched by the generosity, compassion and dedication of so many around the world battling on to win protection for seals. We are very close to ending the cruel slaughter once and for all!
Here are a few actions you can take to help protect seals on the International Day of Action for Seals:
1. Attend a demo or rally in your area. Rallies are being held across Canada, the US and internationally. A list can be found on Facebook HERE.
2. Tell your MP to protect seals and provide sealers with opportunities to transition out of this dying industry. Canadians can use THIS FORM to quickly and easily email their Member of Parliament to urge them to protect seals and to show real support by sealers by helping them to transition out of the industry.
3. Tell Prime Minister Stephen Harper to end the commercial seal hunt. The majority of Canadians oppose the commercial seal hunt, yet each year the Harper government lavishes millions of our tax dollars on the annual slaughter. If you live in Canada please use THIS FORM – if you live outside of Canada, please use THIS FORM – to send an email asking him to respect the wishes of Canadians and stop the slaughter.
4. Tell Canadian Ambassador to US Gary Doer to end Canada’s commercial seal hunt. Please use THIS FORM to send a message to Gary Doer urging him to listen to people around the world, protect seals and provide sealers with opportunities to get out of the crumbling sealing industry.
5. Send an email thanking the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, and Belarus for passing their own seal product ban. The world was shocked when it was discovered recently the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan and Belarus had implemented a ban on import and export of harp seal skins. This was a major blow to the Canadian sealing industry, as Russia was the largest purchaser of Canadian harp seal skins, representing 90% of the market for pelts. The Canadian government is now pressuring Russia to reverse its ban. Now is the time to send a quick message of thanks to those countries and urging them to stand firm in the face of bullying from the Canadian government. Use THIS FORM to let them know the world stands united with them in their efforts to protect defenseless seals from a horrific fate.
6. Send an email to the Canadian Senate to urge protection for Grey Seals. The Senate Committee on Fisheries & Oceans is currently conducting a “study” on a proposed large-scale cull of grey seals in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It is rumoured Canadian Fisheries Minister Keith Ashfield advised the Committee he wants it to recommend a cull regardless of their findings. Send Committee members a reminder that the decision should be made based on SCIENCE, not POLITICAL EXPEDIENCY, and no credible science supports a grey seal cull. In fact, leading Canadian scientists strongly advise against such a cull! Use THIS FORM to send your email to Senate Committee members.
7. Boycott Canadian Seafood. Sealers are commercial fishermen who kill seals for a bit of extra cash in the closed season. The Canadian government was the inspiration for the Canadian seafood boycott running successfully in the US and Europe when a government official stated it would end the commercial seal hunt when fishermen asked it to do so. Please add your name to the list of those boycotting Canadian seafood until the commercial seal hunt is ended.
14. February 2012 · Write a comment	· Categories: Anti-Sealing, Weblogs · Tags: Cape Breton, cull, Darrell Dexter, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, DFO, grey seal, Hay Island, Henry Island, NDP Government, Nova Scotia, Sable Island, seal hunt, slaughter	
Each year on islands around Nova Scotia, grey seal pups are mercilessly slaughtered with clubs, hakapiks and rifles. Even pups on Hay Island, a so-called Protected Wilderness Area, are not safe as sealers invade that island each February to beat and shoot to death defenceless pups aged just a few weeks old. Government and the fishing/sealing industry have scapegoated seals for the sluggish recovery of ground fish stocks – despite the presence of scientific studies suggesting grey seal predation is actually assisting in ground fish stock recovery – and a large-scale cull of grey seals has been called for over the past few years, including seals on iconic Sable Island, Canada’s newest national park located in Nova Scotia. Leading Canadian scientists are opposed to any culling of grey seals.
Please mark February 14th this year by sending a Valentine to Nova Scotia premier Darrell Dexter, urging him to show some love for Nova Scotia grey seals by protecting them instead of allowing them to be slaughtered. Simply follow the link below, right-click on one of the images on the page and save to your hard drive. Then insert or embed into the body of the email and address it to premier@gov.ns.ca. Thank you for speaking up for Nova Scotia grey seals!
02. February 2012 · 1 comment	· Categories: Anti-Sealing, Weblogs · Tags: Department of Fisheries and Oceans, DFO, European Union, grey seal, Labrador, Magdalen Islands, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, seal, seal hunt	
Just when you think the ‘Ottawa Loves Baby Seal Killers’ Farce couldn’t get any more bizarre…it does. The government does something else that makes rational Canadians groan in embarrassment and shake their heads.
“On February 2nd, 2012, all Members of Parliament in the House of Commons will have an opportunity to support Canada’s northern and coastal communities” proudly read the press release issued yesterday by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. “As a sign of support for the individuals who rely on the sustainable seal harvest in Canada, we are asking all Members of Parliament to show their support by wearing a seal fur lapel pin in the House of Commons on February 2nd, 2012.”
What, no seal meat? No seal pâté on tiny pastry cups? No seal ragout served in crystal bowls? No bacon-wrapped seal loin with port reduction? Not a terrine or rillette in sight. Not even a sausage. Just little fuzzy pins. Apparently seal is off the menu again in Ottawa. Maybe after privately hurling back up the seal meat they’d choked down for the cameras in 2009, MPs realized there are limits to which even they will go for sealers.
Fisheries Minister Keith Ashfield playing the Inuit Card to blur the line between Inuit subsistence hunt and Atlantic commercial seal hunt.(Photo courtesy DFO)
This “Day of the Seal” or whatever nonsense they were calling it is clearly just another cringeworthy PR stunt put on by the Canadian government to show token support for the doomed commercial sealing industry. And as per usual the government is playing the Inuit card, blurring the line between large-scale industrialized Atlantic commercial seal hunt and traditional Inuit subsistence hunt (that is, if you consider sitting in a truck listening to music waiting for the seal in the net to drown “traditional.” BTW, the Canadian Veterinarian Medical Association opposes drowning seals in nets as “drowning is considered to be a protracted and, therefore, inhumane form of death”), which are two separate issues.
The press release continued “Sealing is an important economic and cultural driver in Canada’s eastern, arctic and northern communities.”
Arctic and northern communities? Not so much. The Inuit have nothing whatsoever to do with the commercial seal hunt. They do not participate in the commercial seal hunt – theirs is a different hunt targeting a different species of seal. The Inuit are exempt from the EU seal product trade ban which applies to commercial seal products, and the Nunavut government pays Inuit seal hunters an upfront, guaranteed price for seal skins under its Fur Pricing Program.
But the Inuit have allowed themselves to be drawn into this issue and whored-out pimped-out used by the Canadian government in a cynical attempt to fool or emotionally blackmail (hey, whichever works for them) Canadians into accepting the commercial seal hunt as a traditional subsistence hunt when it is most decidedly not.
These ploys are deeply offensive to the majority of Canadians, who are opposed to the annual slaughter and object to their tax dollars being used to defend and sustain it.
The press release stated, predictably: “Sealing is an important economic and cultural driver in Canada’s eastern, arctic and northern communities. It is a long-standing and integral part of Canada’s rural culture and a way of life for thousands of Canadians.”
No, in actual fact, the commercial seal hunt is a marginal activity involving a tiny fraction of the population of Atlantic Canada. It is an unsustainable pastime that brings in very little revenue, cannot survive without massive subsidies from Canadian taxpayers, and could easily be replaced with a number of viable alternatives.
Liberal Senator Mac Harb seemed to be the sole voice of reason in Ottawa today. Senator Harb said, “The Conservative government is holding yet another photo op instead of being upfront about the end of the commercial seal hunt. The government must tell sealers the truth. The market is dead.”
Senator Harb is quite correct. The commercial sealing industry is dead. It’s been dying a slow death for the past few years and it’s time to do the right thing and let it go. It’s time the Canadian government admits this, stops wasting our tax dollars on embarrassing photo-ops, emotional rhetoric and futile WTO challenges, and moves ahead with a licence buyout which would be a long-lasting solution benefiting everyone, including commercial sealers, Canadian taxpayers and Canada’s international reputation.
12. November 2011 · Write a comment	· Categories: Anti-Sealing, Weblogs · Tags: Canadian Sealers Association, cull, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, DFO, European Union, grey seal, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, seal hunt, slaughter, southern Gulf of St. Lawrence, Stephen Harper	
Senator Mac Harb, lone voice of reason in Canadian Senate, is calling for action on behalf of imperiled grey seals (photo credit: Erik Brush/CC)
I recently received an email from the office of Senator Mac Harb. Senator Harb seems to be the lone voice of reason within the Canadian Senate. It seems all other senators are blindly chanting the “SEALS MUST DIE!” mantra of the Harper government, following along like sheep with a scheme that will see over 140,000 grey seals slaughtered under the guise of a “targeted removal” but what is actually a vote-grabbing make-work project for sealers disgruntled at collapsed commercial markets for seal products.
And it is in the hands of the Senate Committee that the fate of grey seals lie. The Senate Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans is currently studying the issue and has already heard testimony from DFO officials as well as former members of the Fisheries Resource Conservation Council (the politically-appointed organization that recommended the experimental slaughter of grey seals).
Scheduled to appear next week are the president and executive director of the Canadian Sealers Association.
Notably, there is no indication the Senate Committee will hear testimony from leading scientists speaking against the cull. Effectively, the Committee is only hearing one side of the argument. But that is nothing new for this government. There have been numerous allegations that while discussing the grey seal predation issue, scientists opposed to a cull were removed and replaced by those willing to adhere to the Harper government’s political agenda.
Incidentally, during DFO’s testimony to the Senate Committee, David Balfour, Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Ecosystems and Fisheries Management for DFO suggested all seal carcasses would be dumped in the water since there are currently no markets for seal products…So…not only unscientific, inhumane and unsustainable, but also wasteful…
I’ve copied and pasted the text of Senator Harb’s email below and have also set up an action page on the Atlantic Canadian Anti-Sealing Coalition website which lists all email addresses you will need to write to the Senate Committee on Fisheries and Oceans.
The Senate Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans has recently begun a study that could result in the killing of 70,000 grey seals off Canada’s East Coast.
The Fisheries Minister is pushing federal scientists to justify the slaughter of seals through contrived studies and one-sided hearings for political reasons. He has decided to ignore factors such as the impact of uncontrolled foreign overfishing in the waters off our coast and the total lack of scientific proof that seals are affecting the cod’s recovery.
The committee is considering an irresponsible cull that could, in my view, have serious negative impact on the Atlantic ecosystem and the long term health of many species, including cod. This slaughter would also result in untold costs to taxpayers and to Canada’s international reputation.
I have called on the committee to do due diligence and gather scientific evidence from all sides of this issue, not simply the studies that fit in with the unjustifiable goal of killing 70,000 seals. I urge you to write to the committee and its members who can be contacted through the Committee website http://senate-senat.ca/pofo-e.asp.
The government needs to know how Canadians and people around the world feel about this indefensible slaughter.