The big debate that was raised in the 1960's and 1970's about the culling of baby harp seals has again come to light. Pushed by the cod fisherman who are claiming that the increase in the harp seal population has seriously affected the cod stocks, the Canadian government has agreed to increase the numbers of young seals that are slaughtered. The increase this year to 350,000 animals from the approximate 15,000 that it has been was due in part to the fact that harp seal populations have increased to 5.2 million from the 1.7 million of the early 1970s. A management plan announced in 2003 by Ottawa will see up to 975,000 harp seals to be taken by 2005.
While the seal hunt has been a long-time tradition in Atlantic Canada, it has come under the scrutiny of many people, groups, organizations, and governments. The Canadian government claims that the commercial seal hunt is humane and well regulated, but animal rights groups and journalists who scrutinize the seal hunts and document the happenings often delivering evidence of probable violations of various regulations. Some fishermen, fisheries and politicians claim that culling more harp seals will help the recovery of the Atlantic cod stocks. Both the debate and the seal hunt continue.
In Toronto this week, the International Fund for Animal Welfare screened graphic videos they say were taken late last month. Rebecca Aldworth of IFAW said she has monitored hundreds of hunts on the ice floes and was especially disturbed by what she saw this time. IFAW has been campaigning against the hunt for decades. IFAW accuses Ottawa of allowing the hunt to gain political support in the Atlantic provinces. Some have argued the exploding seal population is one reason why the cod population hasn't recovered off Newfoundland, but IFAW claims fish only forms a small proportion of a seal's diet.
For some additional facts on the seal hunt visit here.
Am I in favor of the seal hunts? I am not really sure. I mean if they are hunting young seals to reduce the numbers and this reduction will help to raise the cod stocks, then I am in favor of it. There is much information out there both proving and disproving this point and I guess that this is something that needs to take place for several years in order to see the results. If the results don't prove out then we should outlaw it or reduce it again. I am also not in favor of the government subsidizing this killing. $15 million to the hunters for this? Aren't they already subsidizing the fish industry in the Atlantic provinces? I am sure the federal government has better places to use this money. It took them almost a year to announce relief funding to the beef farmers after the loss of business from last years “Mad Cow Disease“ fiasco yet they seem not to have problems subsidizing the fish industry because of the low cod stocks. The other thing that bothers me about this is the way that the hunts are conducted and the way the hunters deal with their catch. It has been described that the hunters are more worried about the numbers they hunt rather than making sure that their prey is killed in a humane way. Several onlookers described hunters as dumping a load of still moving seals so that they could go out for more. This is disgusting and needs to be better regulated by the federal government.
I guess this will be something that will be debated for a long time. Tell me what you think. Comment
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