Canada's Commercial Seal Hunt

Canada’s Commercial Seal Hunt 5CHAPTER Rebecca Aldworth and Stephen Harris Introduction ike efforts to end the commer- A review of the history of the seal cial exploitation from the time of cial hunting of whales, the cam- campaign and the political envi- the first European settlers through Lpaign to stop the slaughter ronment in which it occurred can today. In addition to pinnipeds, sev- of seals in Canada has become a help account for some of these per- eral species of whales, marine birds, major focus for animal and envi- ceptions. It exposes the forces be- and fish have also been driven to ronment protection groups and hind the rejuvenation of commer- the brink of extinction through governments the world over. For cial sealing over the past decade commercial slaughter over the past decades the face of the harp seal and reveals that the price on the four centuries. Pilot whales, once pup has been a symbol—to many, seals’ heads is far greater than that the most common inshore whale the symbol—of environment and which could ever be attached to species in Newfoundland, were animal advocacy. their skins. Moreover, it explains killed en masse, in part to provide But as much as the campaign to why the success—or failure—of meat for mink and fox fur farms, save the seals has become an icon the campaign to save the seals may until the population had become so for those who would protect play a significant role in shaping depleted that hunters could no wildlife, the campaign to continue society’s view of the status of all longer find enough to meet de- the hunt has become a focus for animals. mand (Sanger, Dickinson, and those who would block the Handcock 1998). The bowhead and progress of the animal protection right whales have become endan- and environmental movements. Early Seal Hunting gered species, the grey whale popu- There is little middle ground lation of the North Atlantic no between the two camps, with one in Canada longer exists, and both the hump- Commercial hunting of seals and calling for an immediate cessation back and blue whale are now other pinniped populations has of all commercial hunting of seals threatened species. Great auks, taken place off Canada’s east coast in Canada and the other lobbying flightless aquatic birds once found for hundreds of years. From its very for the highest seal hunt quotas in throughout the North Atlantic, beginnings, this commercial ex- history. Canadian journalists often were hunted for their feathers, oil, ploitation was conducted in an report with incredulity the vast and meat, and their populations entirely unregulated and unsus- gulf between the two sides of this began to decline rapidly in the late tainable fashion, leading to the ex- debate. At the same time, those 1600s. Funk Island, off Newfound- tirpation and severe depletion of working to end the seal hunt note land’s east coast, and the Magdalen several populations (Mowat 1984). the campaign appears far harder Islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence The overhunting of pinnipeds did to win than the economic and cul- were once home to large colonies, not occur in isolation; the marine tural importance of the industry but Funk Island’s last bird was environment of the northwestern would seem to warrant. killed between 1785 and 1800, and Atlantic has been systematically the species officially became devastated by relentless commer- 93 extinct in 1844 (Mersereau 2000). a century of historic high levels of Under these conditions, and Industrial fishing has severely killing. Between 1818 and 1862, without imposition of effective depleted numerous ground fish Newfoundlanders killed more than controls, the stock of western stocks, including northern cod, eighteen million seals. Atlantic harp seals must be haddock, redfish, American plaice, Annual catches of harp seals re- considered to be in grave dan- and capelin. mained strong until the 1860s, ger of catastrophic decline in Early European settlers’ first when they finally began to decline as numbers within a very few foray into commercial hunting the unsustainable levels of hunting years. (In Lavigne and Kovacs of pinnipeds off the east coast of took their toll on the population. 1988, 131) Canada was with the walrus. Despite technological advances such Sergeant and Fisher (1960) Throughout the sixteenth and sev- as steam-driven vessels and the use noted that the census figures indi- enteenth centuries, walruses were of aircraft to spot seal herds, kill lev- cated the population had been re- slaughtered relentlessly for their els would never again be as consis- duced by at least 50 percent lucrative oil, leather, and tusks. tently high. Nonetheless, sealers between 1950 and 1960. By 1680 all walruses had been re- continued to slaughter hundreds of moved from the St. Lawrence River; thousands of seals annually, and by those along the north shore of the the turn of the century, another The Campaign Gulf of St. Lawrence were gone by 12.8 million seals had been killed. 1704 (Lavigne and Kovacs 1988). This brought the total seal kill for to Save the Seals The question the seal hunt posed was As the walrus disappeared, grey the century to a staggering 33 mil- not just how seals were killed, but seals quickly became a substitute lion animals, most of them newborn whether they should be killed at all. source for marine oil. For a time, harp seals (Ronald and Lavigne n.d.). —Brian Davies, founder, grey seals became one of the most With the dawn of the twentieth International Fund exploited resources in the New century came the advent of steel- for Animal Welfare World. As with the walruses, they hulled ships, and annual catches were slaughtered by the thou- averaged more than 200,000 per As scientists grew increasingly con- sands, and by the 1860s grey seals year until 1914. But the new ships cerned about unsustainable kill had been wiped out of much of were called into service during levels, Canadians were beginning their former range (Ronald and both world wars, and kill levels dur- to consider the animal welfare im- Lavigne n.d.). ing these years dropped dramati- plications of the seal hunt. Hu- With walruses and grey seal pop- cally (Canadian Geographic 2000). mane societies first sent observers ulations in severe declines, it was Hunt numbers began to increase to the seal hunt during the 1950s, inevitable that hunters would soon again at the end of World War II, and reports of cruelty slowly fil- set their sights on the larger popu- with higher oil prices and the intro- tered out to the public. In 1958 lations of ice-breeding harp and duction of motorized vessels. Albert Perlin, editor of Newfound- hooded seals. These seals spent On average, more than 200,000 land’s Daily News, was interviewed only part of the year in Canadian seals were killed annually through by CBC radio about the sealing waters, breeding on inaccessible 1949. That year the sealing indus- industry. He commented, sea ice, and it is likely they initially try began to restructure. New- The seal fishery was a wasteful escaped the attention of early foundland became a province of industry. It was in many ways hunters. But by the early eigh- Canada, and with that came social an unpleasant industry. I’ve teenth century, both French and benefits that made sealing less nec- heard many a sealer talk about English settlers had begun to hunt essary for economic survival (Cana- the small whitecoats—two or harp and hooded seals commer- dian Broadcasting Company [CBC] three days old—almost look- cially; by the end of the century, 1958). As sealing firms in New- ing up with tears in their eyes British settlers in Newfoundland foundland withdrew from the seal as they killed them...and were killing more than a hundred hunt, companies based in Norway frankly, if it’s an industry we thousand seals in some years (Lav- sent their boats to the ice instead. could do without, I’m not at all igne and Kovacs 1988). Despite the decrease in Newfound- sure—from the standpoint of Over the next hundred years, land interest in the seal hunt, kill humanitarianism alone—it’s advances in technology and vessel levels increased, achieving a 1950s probably a good industry to be construction dramatically increased average of 312,000 seals per year without. (CBC 1958) the number of seals killed in the (Lavigne and Kovacs 1988). In 1964 the seal hunt achieved annual hunt. The year 1818 marks Scientists soon grew concerned widespread notoriety, when a film in- the beginning of the so-called about the high levels of killing. In cluding seal hunt footage was com- Golden Age of Sealing, nearly half 1960 D. Sergeant warned, 94 The State of the Animals IV: 2007 missioned and broadcast by Radio As the cruelty debate raged on, mitting trade restrictions to pro- Canada (the French component of government scientists were continu- tect public morals. One month the CBC). For the first time, the ing to warn that the consistently later the European Parliament stark images of the bloodied new- high kill levels threatened the very effected a temporary ban to last born pups on the white ice floes and survival of the seal populations. In until March 1983. Just before it scenes of seals appearing to be 1971 a quota system was introduced expired, the European Economic skinned alive allowed Canadians to in an attempt to conserve the rap- Community (EEC), predecessor of see what they had occasionally read idly dwindling seal stocks. However, the European Union, extended it about in newspapers.

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