By Paul Glendenning
The Hamilton Spectator(Apr 20, 2007)

Lacking the media coverage of last year's pleas by Paul McCartney, the fight over Canada's annual seal hunt continues again this year. Despite less ice and higher seal pup mortality, the government remains convinced that killing seal pups is a viable industry.

Aaron Beswick, the Canadian Press The crews of several sealing ships were forced to leave their vessels after becoming trapped by pressing ice this month.

Scientific estimates have revealed that over 90 per cent of pups born this year in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence may drown due to melting ice. Newborn seal pups cannot swim.

The federal department of fisheries and oceans (DFO) has allotted a quota of 270,000 seal pups for 2007. This number is only slightly lower than last year and was the only consideration given by the DFO to the early ice melt, likely due to global warming.

Initial reports from the first stages of the hunt confirm the rarity of surviving pups, as the 890 killed were thousands less than anticipated. This lower number was not encouraging for either sealer or seal defender, as quotas are not reached and yet no seal pups were saved.

What is even more disturbing is that 19,000 of the pups allotted to be killed for this year's quota will do so to "make up" for quota amounts "missed" from last year. Unlike products or stock in other industries, seal pups do not remain from prior years waiting to be killed at a later date. Instead their numbers fluctuate and for the past several years dangerously so, as changes in climate have rendered their traditional birthing grounds unstable and prone to premature melting.

The risk of pups drowning remains during the hunt with bewildered weeks-old seals falling into the sea when pursued by the fishermen participating in the hunt. Such victims are not counted in what is, according to at least one DFO official, a self-regulated hunt based completely on numbers given to officials by the fishermen themselves.

These off-season fishermen, living in ever-shrinking communities, are often held up as the reason the hunt needs to continue.

On a new government website designed to show the economic importance of the hunt, there is a profile of a sealing community called Little Bay Islands.

The profile reveals that half the populations is over 50 years old, 58 per cent of workers have less than a high school education and the properties they own have minimal resale market value with homes being assessed as little as $12,891.

Little Bay Islands's personal income per capita is also low, just over $10,000 in 1992 rising to about $18,000 in 2004.

Instead of defending the hunt however, the profile reveals a severe case of government neglect.

At best, the seal hunt tops up an already meagre subsistence without giving any hope for the future. As the communities continue to age, sealing on thinning ice becomes an evermore dangerous hazard.

Instead of giving viable alternatives and opportunities, the government clings to power by turning the frustrations of the fishermen against seals and any who would see the seal hunt end.

This has caused nothing but conflict and has Canadian fishermen pursuing defenceless pups that are shot, clubbed, hooked and sometimes clubbed again.

The unenforced regulations regarding "humane killing" are regularly ignored, causing great pain and suffering to the animals. Proof of this was captured on film again this year by the Humane Society of the United States.

The question then is, why does the hunt continue?

One major reason appears to be due to the Canadian government's other economic interests in Atlantic Canada.

Canada's maritime resources are being sold out to fisheries from other countries. In return for a fee, foreign fisheries are permitted to trawl the ocean floor in Canadian waters, not only scraping away Canadian fish but the natural ecosystem that provides for all sea life. To evade responsibility for this damaging and costly activity, the government turns the fishermen's frustrations and hopes onto the shooting, hooking and bashing of baby seals.

So while the government benefits financially, Canadian seals and sealers alike are left out on thin ice.

Canada's seals are a valued part of Canada and should be respected for their own sake and not used as pawns in political game-playing. At the same time, residents of Atlantic Canada need to be respected and their communities properly helped in order to not only survive but thrive as an essential part of Canada.

The problems facing seals and sealers will not melt away with the ice and should not be ignored just because they are without a celebrity endorsement.

Canada's maritime provinces deserve better and so do Canada's seals.

Paul Glendenning lives in Hamilton.