Some 12,000 sealers armed with rifles and spears launched for the ice floes and islands off eastern Canada on Monday in the world's largest seal hunt, accompanied by protesters condemning the US$20 million harvest as barbaric.
Hunters are allowed to kill 350,000 young seals this year, the largest number since the government instituted quotas in the 1960s. The harp seal population is burgeoning at 5.2 million and pelts are garnering record prices of about US$50 each.
"I believe this hunt is inherently cruel and the regulations to protect the seals are woefully inadequate," said Rebecca Aldworth of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, which will monitor the cull.
PHOTO: AFP
The hunt off the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador received international attention beginning in the 1960s, and bloody television images of baby harp seals being clubbed to death led to bans on white seal fur and boycotts of Canadian fish products in many European markets.
Since then, the Canadian government has tried to ease protesters' concerns by banning the killing of seal pups under 12 days old -- when their fur changes from white to gray -- and implementing regulations designed to make the hunt more humane.
Many countries, including the US, still ban imports of seal products, but Ottawa has supported the hunt to help Canada's economically suffering coastal towns. The industry earned about US$15 million last year, primarily from pelt sales to Norway, Denmark and China.
Earlier this year, the Humane Society of the US took out full-page newspaper ads urging Americans to cancel trips to Canada and boycott Canadian products.
US Senator Carl Levin introduced a resolution condemning the hunt, and some of those attending the Sundance Film Festival in Utah earlier this year wore T-shirts reading: "Club Sandwiches, Not Seals."
However, some of the major activist groups that targeted sealing in the past said they have more pressing issues to address this year.
Andrew Male of Greenpeace Canada said the organization was "not actively campaigning" against the hunt, instead focusing on such issues as genetically modified foods and climate change.
Despite its newspaper ad, the Humane Society does not oppose the hunt itself, only some of the methods used by sealers, spokesman Nicholas Braden said.
Although most seals are shot instead of clubbed, many wounded animals are left to drown, he said. Also, an organization study found that 40 percent of the seals killed were still alive while being skinned, despite rules designed to prevent this, he said.
Steve Outhouse, a spokesman for Canada's Ministry of Fisheries and Oceans, disputed those accusations. A Canadian Veterinary Medical Association study found that 98 percent of the seals were killed "in a medically humane manner with the minimum of pain," he said on Monday.
ROCKY RELATIONS: The figures on residents come as Chinese tourist numbers drop following Beijing’s warnings to avoid traveling to Japan The number of Chinese residents in Japan has continued to rise, even as ties between the two countries have become increasingly fractious, data released on Friday showed. As of the end of December last year, the number of Chinese residents had increased by 6.5 percent from the previous year to 930,428. Chinese people accounted for 22.6 percent of all foreign residents in Japan, making them by far the largest group, Japanese Ministry of Justice data showed. Beijing has criticized Tokyo in increasingly strident terms since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last year suggested that a military conflict around Taiwan could
A retired US colonel behind a privately financed rocket launch site in the Dominican Republic sees the project as a response to China’s dominance of the space race in Latin America. Florida-based Launch on Demand is slated to begin building a US$600 million facility in a remote region near the border with Haiti late this year. The project is designed to meet surging demand for the heavy-lift rockets needed to put clusters of satellites into orbit. It is also an answer to China’s growing presence in the region, said CEO Burton Catledge, a former commander of the US Air Force’s 45th Operations
Germany is considering Australia’s Ghost Bat robot fighter as it looks to select a combat drone to modernize its air force, German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius said yesterday. Germany has said it wants to field hundreds of uncrewed fighter jets by 2029, and would make a decision soon as it considers a range of German, European and US projects developing so-called “collaborative combat aircraft.” Australia has said it will integrate the Ghost Bat, jointly developed by Boeing Australia and the Royal Australian Air Force, into its military after a successful weapons test last year. After inspecting the Ghost Bat in Queensland yesterday,
A pro-Iran hacking group claimed to breach FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal e-mail inbox and posted some of the contents online. The e-mails provided by the hacking group include travel details, correspondence with leasing agents in Washington and global entry, and loyalty account numbers. The e-mail address the hackers claim to have compromised has been previously tied to Patel’s personal details, and the leaked e-mails contain photos of Patel and others, in addition to correspondence with family members and colleagues. “The FBI is aware of malicious actors targeting Director Patel’s personal email information,” the agency said in a statement on
RSS