Nova Scotia’s grey seal population needs to be cut in half over the next five years while there is still a fishing industry to protect, advocates of a commercial seal hunt told the legislature’s resources committee Tuesday in Halifax.

Members of the Grey Seal Research and Development Society, formed in 2003 by fishermen and fish processors from across the province, told MLAs that an estimated 350,000 grey seals are overrunning the coastline and threatening fragile fish stocks.

"While the grey seal population has increased more than tenfold since 1980, our cod and other groundfish populations continue to decline or disappear off of eastern Nova Scotia and Cape Breton," said Denny Morrow, secretary-treasurer of the society and executive director of the Nova Scotia Fish Packers Association.

"The decline in cod and some other commercial groundfish stocks is spreading westward to areas where fishing and fish processing has until now been able to survive."

The politicians were told an adult grey seal can exceed 500 kilograms in weight and consume more than 20 kilograms of fish a day.

John Levy, a fisherman from Chester Basin, said he salvaged just one fish from more than 150 kilograms of cod, pollock and white hake caught in his gillnets off Yarmouth on March 19.

The rest of the fish had had their stomachs torn out by grey seals, Mr. Levy said.

Robert Courtney, who fishes in the Cape North area of Cape Breton, said grey seals follow lobster boats in search of the small lobsters that fishermen are required to put back in the water.

Fish processors regularly find fish infested with seal worm parasites, making it uneconomical to process and export, Mr. Morrow said.

The society requested a grey seal quota from the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans in 2003 and received a two-year allocation of 10,000 animals. The quota, which has hardly been used, has been extended until the end of 2006.

Fishermen from the society shot 460 juvenile grey seals in 2005 and have harvested about 800 so far this year, Mr. Morrow said. The pelts sold for an average price of $37 last year and $50 this year. Samples of meat from adult carcasses were well-received by an Asian importer who wants more.

Mr. Morrow called on the province to help the society expand its meat harvest. The society needs engineering and financial assistance in fitting boats to handle large carcasses destined for processing and export.

People in the fishing industry were pleased to see a pair of Canadian political leaders recently stand up to visiting celebrities opposed to the annual harp seal hunt in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Mr. Morrow said. Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams debated Paul and Heather McCartney on U.S. television and Prime Minister Stephen Harper refused to meet with Pamela Anderson.

Digby-Annapolis MLA Harold (Junior) Theriault, a former lobsterman, called on the other members of the resources committee to support the fishermen and ignore the hype that surrounds the killing of seals.

"I love animals," Mr. Theriault said. "I have two animals at home, Molly my dog and my cat Chico. I love them very much. They sleep in bed with me at night sometimes. . . . But if I ever wake up some morning and there’s 150 Mollys in my bedroom and 150 Chicos, and the fridge is upset and bare and empty and I can’t get to the breakfast table, I’ve got to do something.

"Today, what’s going on in the seal herds of Atlantic Canada is not normal."

The committee wants to hear what officials from DFO and the provincial Fisheries Department have to say about a commercial grey seal hunt.