Latest news on the 2007 Canadian seal hunt
Tuesday 27 March 2007
Respect for Animals’ Directors, Mark Glover and Nicki Brooks are now out in Canada awaiting the start of the hunt, which is expected this week.
As yet there have been no announcements from the Canadian government confirming the quota for this year, nor confirmation of a start date for the hunt.
Fly pasts of the area in the south of the Gulf of St Lawrence have revealed that there is hardly any ice at all and very few baby seals. At this time of year in the Gulf there should be vast areas of solid ice providing a home to hundreds of thousands of pups. Where there should be tens of thousands of seals, less than 20 (that is 20, not 20,000) have been spotted.
An environmental catastrophe is unfolding off the east coast of Canada.
Harp seals rely on the ice to breed and it is very likely that climate change has now prevented the formation of the ice on which they give birth.
It now also seems likely that as many as a quarter of a million seals pups will have already died because of the lack of ice. The impact of this on the seal population will be significant and renders the Canadian government’s ‘management plan’ totally redundant.
The only responsible course of action open to the Canadian government now is to cancel this year’s hunt. Instead, however, we are waiting for the Department of Fisheries & Oceans to announce how many seals are doomed to die brutally.
Further updates from Mark and Nicki will be posted here throughout the week.
ACTION:
Please contact the Canadian High Commission at 1 Grosvenor Street, London W1K 4AA and ask for this year’s seal hunt to be cancelled or you can telephone on 0207 258 6600.
Please write to Ian McCartney MP, the Minister of State for Trade at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, King Charles Street, London SW1 2AH who is responsible for the issue of seal imports into the UK.
And please remember, boycott all Canadian seafood products until the seal hunt is cancelled.