Seal hunt battle goes high-tech

TheStar.com - News

February 22, 2007
Tim Harper
WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON–As a U.S. Humane Society boycott of Canadian seafood began to have an effect, the Canadian embassy began a counteroffensive with what it is touting as the most sophisticated lobbying tool in the country.

The battle of the seal hunt has featured international celebrities, grim tales from distant ice floes and graphic photos of bloody clubs on one side and – in typically Canadian understated fashion – a computer software package on the other.

The embassy tool is known as GoCCART (Government of Canada Congressional Analysis and Research Tool), a computer program developed by an American company that allows Canadian advocates to drill deep into every congressional, state or local political district in the U.S. with the click of a mouse.

Who has the most fish processing plants contemplating joining in the boycott in his or her district? Have those plants contributed to congressional campaigns? Are there Canadian-owned businesses in that district who might be offering support to the member?

GoCCART knows and so, now, do staffers from Canadian Ambassador Michael Wilson to representatives in 19 consulates and trade offices from Anchorage to Boston.

The software has been credited with giving the Canadian side a huge boost in opening the border to beef exports because advocates were able to go to legislators and identify meat processing plants in their district where local job losses could be expected if the ban was continued.

The Humane Society says since it began its ProtectSeals boycott in March 2005, Canadian exports of sea crabs to the U.S. have declined by $353.6 million (U.S.), or 36 per cent.

Although it does not claim that plunge is totally attributable to the boycott – Canada says factors such as market tastes, currency fluctuations and transport costs are bigger – it says the dip in exports are more pronounced than exports to other countries without the boycott.

Embassy officials have described the counteroffensive as "Politics 101,'' and it's really an homage to the famous adage from one-time House speaker Tip O'Neill, who believed all politics was local.

"It's all about perception,'' said embassy spokesperson Bernard Etzinger. "We can say, `you're being asked to do this – have you looked at it this way?'"

The pilot project began in January 2005, but it has been fully functional in the past six to eight months. In a funding request from the embassy to the department of foreign affairs, the Washington office describes the "wow factor'' in the level of information obtained, "because we show them local knowledge, and that we care about the same thing they do.''

The documents were obtained under Freedom of Information legislation by Ottawa researcher Ken Rubin.

The software, developed by iMapData Corp. of Washington, D.C., has also been used during the softwood lumber negotiations, to try to explode myths about Canadian social, security and environmental policies, and even on the Canadian push for a more robust international presence in Darfur, Sudan. But it is difficult to determine whether it is working on the seafood boycott, which is approaching its second anniversary.

Rebecca Aldworth, the U.S. Humane Society representative in Canada, said she has never dealt with a fish processing plant or restaurant that said it would not join the boycott of Canadian seafood because of the representation of the Canadian government – or a U.S. representative who may have been lobbied by Canada.

"We're not getting pushed back. I'm not saying this is not happening, but it has never come to our attention,'' she said. "The greatest success of the Canadian government is its misrepresentation of the effect of the boycott. That misinformation is irresponsible and reprehensible.''

Etzinger said Canadian consular officials throughout the U.S. are using GoCCART data to build awareness on the boycott.

"Our consulates in the U.S. are meeting with industry to take advantage of opportunities to correct myths and misperceptions on the seal hunt,'' he said. "We are using GoCCART to build a database of seafood processing facilities and mapping those out by city, state, and congressional district. We will continue to assess the impact that the boycott has on the seafood sector.'

Canada backs seal hunt despite market concerns

Updated Sat. Feb. 24 2007 2:57 PM ET

Canadian Press

MONCTON, N.B. -- Federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn says Canada will push back against negative messages about the annual East Coast seal hunt, but it will not back down.

Some processors attending a New Brunswick fisheries meeting on Saturday said they are worried they may lose customers because of the controversy and protest surrounding the seal hunt.

Hearn said the Canadian government is working hard to counter anti-sealing campaigns, with the message that the seal hunt is humane and sustainable.

"We have to make sure that people who ask questions about the hunt are aware of the truth and not what they see from some group still going around showing 20-year-old video of sealers clubbing whitecoats," Hearn told reporters during a break in the two-day fisheries summit in Moncton, N.B.

"Some of these people say the herd is disappearing. When we had the large northern cod stocks some years ago we only had two million seals. We have one per cent of those cod stocks today and we have six million seals.''

[Despite the official DFO position having changed in recent years to stop scapegoating the seals for the collapse of the cod population -- known by all fisheries scientists to be the result of DFO mismanagement--Loyola Hearn continues to blame the seals and spread lies regarding populations of seals and cod! --Harpseals.org]

But some people in the Atlantic fishing industry are worried Canada may be losing the public relations battle.

Crab processor Paul Boudreau of Tracadie, N.B., said in the last four or five weeks processors have received inquiries from customers asking for guarantees that they have nothing to do with the annual seal hunt.

"In the past two weeks, I received two different inquiries and I had to write letters to these customers saying that, no, our company, McGraw Sea Food, is not involved in the hunt,'' Boudreau said.

"This is a serious problem from a Canadian point of view because Newfoundland and Labrador companies are involved. This is coming from the market, so we don't really know what the final result will be.''

Opponents of the seal hunt in the United States have mounted boycotts against Canadian seafood in restaurants across the country. As well, they are continuing their efforts to encourage countries to close their doors to seal products.

The European Union is being pressured to ban the products, but has decided to first conduct an in-depth study of the seal hunt to establish whether it is humane or not.

The British government said recently it will press its neighbours in the European Union for a total ban on the import of seal products.

Hearn said Canada is joining with other sealing countries, including Russia and Norway, to promote the hunt and seal products.

"So collectively we're doing push back,'' he said.

"We are getting out the information and we are encouraging people to come and see for themselves and then make up their minds.''

However, people who do want to see the hunt for themselves may have a more difficult time this year.

Hearn said he will decide soon whether to stiffen regulations for hunt observers, possibly by increasing the exclusion zone around sealers from 10 to 20 metres.

That wider zone will make it much more difficult for observers to see what hunters are doing on the ice.

Hearn said he will announce the quota for this year's hunt within the next few days. The hunt is expected to begin by late March.

Last year's quota was about 335,000 seals.

"There are concerns that we may be losing some of the seals," Hearn said, pointing to last year's poor ice conditions.

"If that's the case, we'll adjust the quota this year. If not, we're OK where we are.''

More than 6,000 Atlantic Canadians -- most of them from Hearn's home province of Newfoundland and Labrador -- were actively involved in the hunt last year.