Sealers got more than their quota in the smaller of Canada's two annual seal hunts, in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence.

The quota of 18,500 seals was surpassed by about 1,000 animals before the Department of Fisheries and Oceans called a halt last week, a DFO official said.

"It's pretty hard to manage that very, very precise because you have 40 vessels sealing at once, so we closed the fishery Thursday at one o'clock," Roger Simone said.

Sealers are forbidden to kill baby seals, called whitecoats, before they shed the white fur.

Seven arrests were made during the southern gulf hunt after a group of animal-rights activists, including members of the Humane Society of the United States, were accused of steering their boat too close to a sealing vessel. No one has been charged, Simone said.

The humane society threatened on Monday to take legal action against the federal government. Three of its members are among observers banned from the hunt by Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn.

Seal bodies not result of hunt
01 April 2006

DONKIN (CP) - Dead seals have been washing up along some Cape Breton shores, but federal Fisheries officials say the seals were likely victims of the environment and not the controversial East Coast seal hunt.

Seals have been washing up in several areas of Cape Breton, even in Sydney's downtown harbour.

The seals include pups and adults and still have their pelts, which would likely be removed if they were killed during the hunt. This year's hunt opened in the Gulf of St. Lawrence last weekend.

"Our best guess is that it's a natural event," federal Fisheries Department spokeswoman Joan Reid told CTV News.

"We had extremely high winds and we've had poor ice conditions . . . and quite often they'll get trapped between the pans of ice."

Seal hunt observers back on land
Mar 27, 2006

Representatives from the Humane Society of the United States are back on land pending an investigation by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. Seven people aboard two HSUS Zodiacs were arrested Sunday just east of the Magdalen Islands for being too close to the seal hunt.

Seven observers from HSUS were arrested for allegedly violating permit conditions. (CP photo/Jonathan Hayward)

Rebecca Aldworth, director of Canadian wildlife issues for the group, said the craft were trying to stay away from the sealing boats, but the bigger boats tried to ram the smaller Zodiacs. Aldworth says DFO confiscated the group's video of the incident. "We've been informed by DFO that until this matter is resolved we will likely be denied observation permits, and that the matter could take several weeks to resolve," said Aldworth. "We're meeting with DFO and we're going to have a very long discussion with them about the implications of banning media and licensed observers from documenting this hunt." Aldworth is not certain how many other anti-sealing groups are observing the hunt. She said the HSUS hopes to get back out on the ice to continue to document the hunt. The HSUS has emerged as one of the sharpest critics of Canada's annual seal hunt. Defenders of the hunt criticized the group for being a cousin to PETA and for capitalizing on emotional responses to whitecoat seals. The whitecoat hunt has been banned for almost two decades.

Meanwhile, the president of the Magdalen Islands Sealers Association says there will probably not be much to observe for the next few days. Jean Claude Lapierre says 60 boats from the area will not be going out. Lapierre said only 20 per cent of the seals have completely moulted. He says partially moulted seals, or ragged coats, don't bring as high a price.

Lapierre says the fleet will stay in port until the seals are completely gray.

The one woman and six men were picked up southeast of the Magdalen Islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence for allegedly coming too close to a sealing vessel, violating the conditions of their observer permits, said Roger Simon, a spokesman for the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Observers are required to stay at least 10 metres away from sealers during the hunt. "We have reason to believe that they did not respect that condition," said Simon. The hunt in the gulf opened this weekend. The larger hunt, off the northeast coast of Newfoundland, is expected to open April 4. The department did not give the names of the two Canadians and five foreigners who were released a short time after their afternoon arrests. Simon said fisheries officers would investigate the case before any charges are laid.

The arrests came after a string of angry confrontations between the sealers and activists protesting the hunt. The annual commercial hunt started Saturday morning in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence with a quota of 91,000 seal pelts. The hunters took about 3,100 seals on the first day, well below the average of about 5,000 pelts, as they were hampered by warm weather, thin ice and the protests. "A lot of the ice . floated out of the Gulf of St. Lawrence," Simon told CBC News. The sealers were operating in only one of four areas so far, he said, adding there could be about 200 boats when the other areas open. Tempers flared during the first two days as activists tried to come between the sealers and their prey, using video cameras to record the slaughter. The hunters hurled seal intestines and curses at the protesters, while activists claimed they were rammed by the sealing boats. In one incident off Nova Scotia's northern coast, sealers allegedly rammed a small inflatable Zodiac boat used by protesters. No one was hurt, but demonstrators were shaken up and the propeller of their boat was damaged, Rebecca Aldworth, a spokeswoman for the Humane Society of the United States, told the Canadian Press.

"The hunters may be frustrated and I know they don't want us documenting their activities, but that doesn't give them the right to risk people's lives," she said.

Simon dismissed the confrontation with the protesters aboard the Zodiac. "The intestines are nothing new." He said they normally hurl seal flippers, and added that shouting matches between sealers and protesters are common. No charges were laid in the incident. Several celebrities recently weighed in against the hunt, and the Humane Society of the United States is trying to convince restaurants to boycott Canadian seafood. But the list of participating restaurants on its website is not long. Simon accused the hunt's opponents of distorting the picture. "What you hear from the anti-sealers is a series of half-truths." The federal government says the country's seal population is thriving at nearly six million, nearly triple the numbers in the 1970s. He said they normally hurl seal flippers, and added that shouting matches between sealers and protesters are common. No charges were laid in the incident. Several celebrities recently weighed in against the hunt, and the Humane Society of the United States is trying to convince restaurants to boycott Canadian seafood. But the list of participating restaurants on its website is not long. Simon accused the hunt's opponents of distorting the picture. "What you hear from the anti-sealers is a series of half-truths." The federal government says the country's seal population is thriving at nearly six million, nearly triple the numbers in the 1970s.

Seal hunt begins on thin ice
Mar. 25, 2006

Canada's annual East Coast seal hunt began at dawn Saturday amid warnings from animal rights groups that it'll cost Canada both money and respect.
Some opponents say global boycotts of Canadian seafood have had an impact and that this year's hunt could be the last.
Most of the large ice floes in the region have melted while others are quite thin because of the mild winter. The lack of solid ice means the hunters will, for the most part, have to stay in their boats and shoot the seals, according to media reports.
By mid-morning on Saturday, the temperature was already 15 C. Hunt protesters say many seal pups could die because they're still too young to survive in the water.
Celebrities have drawn a lot more attention than usual to the annual seal hunt this year. Earlier in the week, Brigitte Bardot, once a movie star who now devotes much of her time to animal welfare, returned to Canada for the first time in almost three decades to reiterate the plea she made in the 1970s to stop killing seals.
Former Beatle Paul McCartney and his wife, Heather Mills McCartney, were on the ice floes off the Atlantic Ocean earlier this month to see young seals and call for an end to the hunt.
On Friday, the Humane Society of the United States posted a statement from McCartney on its website to step up the pressure on Canada.
"Heather and I chose to come out to the ice floes before the hunt because it would break our hearts to have to see the cruelty of the hunt, but we are absolutely committed to making sure that this is the last slaughter of baby seals in Canada anyone will ever have to witness."
Sealers from Atlantic Canada and Quebec will be allowed to take 91,000 harp seals for this hunt. A second and much larger hunt is expected to begin April 4 off the northern coast of Newfoundland, where sealers can take 234,000 seals.
The federal government says the country's seal population is thriving at nearly six million, nearly triple the population of the 1970s.
Canada banned the killing of immature whitecoat seals in 1987. Hunters are not allowed to kill the pups before they molt their downy, white fur, usually when they're about three weeks old.

Renewed call for boycott

Still, anti-sealers are again calling for a boycott of Canadian seafood. They say their boycott last year hit Canada's economy hard.
But in Washington, a coalition of restaurants and food companies says its research debunks that claim.
The U.S-based Center for Consumer Freedom says it has a survey showing that only 21 per cent of the restaurants and seafood companies that the Humane Society of the United States claims are boycotting Canadian seafood are doing that.
"Thirteen per cent of the restaurants on their list are presently serving Canadian seafood as we speak," spokesman David Martosko told CBC Radio.
The consumer group also found more than 45 per cent of the restaurants on the society's list have never served Canadian products.