Jennifer Santiago
Reporting

(CBS4) MIAMI Each year, the Canadian government approves the allowable catch for harp seals in its northern provinces. In 2004, a maximum of 350,000 animals were allowed to be killed. In 2006, it was an almost similar number.

photo (c) Sea Shepherd

Organizations against the seal’s killing call for a day in March to mark the International Day of Action To End the Seal Hunt; one such non-profit organization with a chapter in Miami is called Harpseals.org.

But there's another movement afoot: restaurants banning fish from Canada. O Asian Grill on South Beach has announced its decision to join the ranks of about a dozen restaurants in South Florida banning such imports.

The collapse of fisheries around Newfoundland led to the economic incentive to hunt for seals – for their white fur. When the world began to see film of fishermen clubbing seals, when they were most vulnerable on land, and their white fur covered with blood, outrage led to demonstrations.

While the "whitecoat" harp seals (under 2 weeks old) are still protected as a result of actions by Greenpeace and other organisations in the 70s and 80s, and some of the more extreme animal rights abuses have been outlawed, older seals can still be legally hunted under Canadian law.

The season for the commercial hunt of harp seal is from November 15 to May 15. The majority of sealing, however, occurs in late March in The Gulf of St. Lawrence, and during the first or second week of April off Newfoundland, in an area known as "The Front".

Canada's cod fishery collapsed in the early 90s, and some in Canada blamed the seals, despite international organizations claiming it was decades of human overfishing.

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