Canada's Commercial Seal Hunt
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Canada’s Commercial Seal Hunt: Past, Present, and Future Introduction This booklet is about Canada’s commercial seal For about a decade, these subsidies reinvigorated hunt, the one that occurs every spring off the coast the industry. The number of seals killed skyrocketed of Newfoundland and Labrador and in the Gulf of St. in Canada, with almost 3.5 million animals killed Lawrence. It is not about the Inuit seal hunt, which between 1996 and 2008. But as the kill numbers occurs in a different place, at a different time of year, increased, so did the concerns over inhumane killing, and targets a different species of seal using different with hunt observers and veterinary teams regularly methods, primarily as a source of food. documenting animal cruelty and unnecessary suffering. Canada’s commercial seal hunt was the first animal welfare issue to be internationally condemned, as In 2009, the European Union took notice and banned grainy images of white seal pups being clubbed and the commercial trade in all seal products except for skinned on the ice circled the globe through television those from Indigenous hunts. Canada and Norway and print in the 1960s and ‘70s. challenged the ban at the World Trade Organization, but lost both the original challenge and appeal. Even today, late-night comedy hosts continue to refer In 2014, the WTO ruled that trade bans may be to Canadians as “baby seal clubbers.” And despite justified based on public moral concerns over the polling that consistently indicates the majority of commercial hunting of seals. Canadians oppose this industry, we do club baby seals: clubs are still legal and regularly used, and The commercial seal hunt continues to rely on over 98% of the animals killed are pups aged 3 weeks government support, offering seasonal, part-time to 3 months of age. The question is: Why? employment for a few hundred individuals in Atlantic Canada. Efforts to market seal products other than Many people believe the seal hunt ended in the pelts have failed, resulting in massive waste; over 1980s. And they’re mostly right: with the closure of 90% of the meat is left on the ice or thrown in the the EU market to whitecoat seal products in 1983, the ocean. industry was all but dead. Then came the collapse of the cod fishery in 1992, and although we now Canadian politicians have kept this struggling know that overfishing and mismanagement were at industry alive for decades with a steady stream of fault, politicians found a scapegoat in seals. In 1995, taxpayer dollars. It is now time to support alternatives Fisheries Minister Brian Tobin declared — with no to commercial sealing that will provide sustainable, scientific evidence — that harp seals were responsible long-term, and meaningful employment. for the failure of cod to recover. Tobin increased the quota for harp seals by 30%, and introduced millions It’s 2016. It’s time to move on. of dollars in federal subsidies, effectively creating the commercial seal hunt as it exists today. Since then, hundreds of millions of dollars have been Sheryl Fink spent to develop and market new seal products, support sealers’ organizations, provide direct Wildlife Campaigns Director subsidies to sealers, and promote seal products IFAW Canada internationally. 1 The Commercial Seal Hunt: A Brief History Harp seals have been commercially for Canadian seal products. In 1995, Fisheries Minister Brian hunted in Atlantic Canada since the Tobin declared (without any 1600s. Seals were originally killed In the wake of the European scientific evidence) that “there is for their blubber, which was made ban, and facing the threat of a only one major player fishing that into oil. By 1740, the seal hunt UK boycott of Canadian fish, the stock, and his first name is Harp was integral to Newfoundland’s Canadian government finally and his second name is Seal.” economy, with large quantities of ended the commercial hunting of Tobin increased the Allowable seal oil shipped to Britain for heating whitecoat seals in 1987. Catch of seals, and introduced and light, and later as an industrial Canada’s commercial seal hunt millions of dollars in financial lubricant and cooking oil. With the would have effectively ended there support for the industry, including advance of technology, the need were it not for political intervention generous subsidies for every for seal and whale oil diminished. In in the mid-1990s. Following the pound of meat landed. Over $20 the 1950s, Norwegian technology collapse of the Atlantic cod stocks million in subsidies was spent on enabled seal pelts to be tanned on and fishery moratorium in 1992, the commercial sealing industry 1 an industrial scale, and the industry Canadians wanted answers, and between 1996 and 2001. shifted to hunting seals for their fur, politicians needed someone – or With this influx of taxpayer dollars, to be made into luxury items like something – to blame. coats, handbags, and boots. commercial sealing experienced a revival. The hunt targeted In the 1960s, images of nursing slightly older pups aged 3 weeks whitecoat seal pups (under 14 – 3 months of age (known as days old) being killed in front of “beaters”) for their sleek silvery fur. their mothers brought Canada’s The industry peaked in 2006, when commercial seal hunt international sealers received over $100 CAD media attention. The public outcry per pelt. Reality struck in 2007, prompted a European ban on when the industry admitted to products from whitecoat seal pups having overpaid for skins and sales in 1983, removing the main market plummeted.2 At the same time, national bans on seal products SEAL HUNT 36 out of 50 The Great Newfoundland First Scientific Wooden Steamers Lost Disaster, and the sinking of Warning of Historical Timeline 72% of the first generation the Southern Cross Over-Hunting of steamers were sunk, most 78 men died on the ice due to Dr. Dean Fisher crushed by the ice. lack of a wireless aboard the writes that Newfoundland Largest Seal Hunt SS Newfoundland. Many restrictions on the blamed Captain Abram Kean Joins hunt are needed on Record Confederation 370 boats, for pursuing profit over the well to keep the seal being of working men. A further The seal hunt population healthy. 13,600 men, 48 Men Die in the Norwegians effectively becomes 500,000 seals 173 men were lost in the sinking Greenland Disaster of the Southern Cross. Begin Sealing off a “Canadian” hunt. landed, Newfoundland valued at £425,000. Industrial Tanning Begins Seal Hunt Begins Norwegian technology enabled the Catches Begin to Drop industrial processing of seal pelts. The increased efficiency of to Dwindle First Steel Hulled As demand for blubber dropped, The Golden Age steam vessels meant that An average of 161,000 seals Steamer Enters the Hunt seal pelts began to replace it as a of Sealing the harp seal herd began are landed each year, with With boats and equipment commodity. 18.3 million seals diminishing. fewer than ten ships, and landed by becoming increasingly around 1500 men participating. The Newfoundland Sealing Fleet Enters Wartime Service Newfoundland expensive, Water Street Average catches plummet to 48,000 seals annually. In 1943, sealers. merchants increase their no large ships went to the hunt, and no seals were hunted. control and profit. 2 were beginning to take hold in There are currently two seal markets for seal products other Europe. processors remaining in than fur have failed. Seal meat is Newfoundland and Labrador: not widely consumed in Canada In 2009, the European Union Carino Ltd., a privately owned or elsewhere. Medical research banned the import and sale of all subsidiary of Norwegian giant GC into seal heart valve transplants commercially hunted seal products Rieber, and PhocaLux International has been abandoned. Selling and the industry has been in Inc. which began operating in seal penises to Asian markets decline ever since. Following the 2015. In 2012, 2013, and 2015 as aphrodisiacs is still being ban, the number of seals killed the Government of Newfoundland considered,3 but demand appears in Atlantic Canada dropped from and Labrador provided $8.2 million to have been reduced with the 218,000 to 76,000. The industry in loans to these processors to introduction of Viagra. After took another blow when Russia — purchase pelts. decades of false promises, the which reportedly represented 90% Canadian government’s attempts of Canada’s seal fur exports — Unfortunately, sealers themselves to access Chinese markets for seal followed with a ban in 2011. Recent have seen little benefit from meat have failed, and promotion of catches of harp seals are back to industry subsidies and loans. seal fur as a luxury product in Asia mid-1980s levels, and pelt prices Sealers receive $25-30 per pelt, is struggling, as seal is viewed as are stuck at $20-30, even when and profits after expenses such as a “low-end” and less desirable fur.5 processors receive government food and fuel are small. Sealing is loans to purchase pelts. an unpredictable and dangerous For the most part, Canadian activity that offers only a few weeks fishermen appear to have Despite the commercial sealing of employment each year. Not successfully withstood the decline industry receiving at least $50 surprisingly, the number of sealers of the sealing industry, and many million in federal funding over the involved in the hunt has declined Newfoundlanders accept the end of past two decades, the price of a as fishermen turn to other sources the hunt as a foregone conclusion. seal skin and landed value of the of income. In 2006, an estimated Strangely, governments have seal hunt has plummeted from a 5,594 sealers took part in the hunt; refused to assist fishermen in the peak of $102 per skin in 2006 to in 2014, only 393.