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POOR ICE CONDITIONS
THREATEN SEAL PUPS IN 2006 Call to Action: Tell the DFO to prepare emergency measures. Demand a moratorium on the seal "hunt" this year. |
 Killing seals- photo source unknown |
Will there be ice for the pups? Will the pups survive? We've asked these questions and waited for answers. Ice reports and forecasts indicated since February that there would be mostly relatively thin ice for the whelping of the harp seals in the Gulf of St. Lawrence this year. Then in late February and early March, we saw harp seal pups being born in the Gulf, mostly around Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton, and the Magdalen Islands (these islands being home to most of the Gulf sealers). There was hope that the worst ice conditions in recorded history would not do the seal pups in. Now, however, it seems that hope is lost. The ice has broken up, and the seals are gone, presumably having drowned.
This may be part of the global warming phenomenon that has also caused a melting of large areas of the polar ice caps. Yet the Canadian government fails to account for climate change in their "management" (i.e., slaughter) plans for the seals.
In February, so little ice had formed that Environment Canada reported that such poor ice conditions had never been seen before in recorded history. The last time conditions approached what we saw in February 2006 was in 1969. The year 1981, was the third lowest ice year in recorded history.
In 1981, some harp seal mothers, who normally whelp only on ice, went to the shores of Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia and gave birth on land. That year, due to the lack of ice, hundreds of thousands of seal pups drowned. The seals who were born on land faced both natural dangers, like death by exposure, and the danger of death at the hands of thousands of sealers, both licensed and unlicensed, who took this rare "opportunity" to walk right up to a baby seal and kill it. Some of these seals were also attacked by domestic dogs.
Those who witnessed this remarkable event (including Stephen Best of Environment Voters, and Paul Watson of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society) reported horrors and atrocities that make even the annual seal "hunt" on ice look like a picnic.
TAKE ACTION TODAY! CONTACT FISHERIES MINISTER LOYOLA HEARN AND ASK HIM TO DECLARE A MORATORIUM ON THE SEAL HUNT THIS YEAR. Hurry! The sealers are getting ready to go out and find the few remaining seal pups now!
Find Contact information here
The Precautionary Approach requires the Canadian government to create strategies to avoid unacceptable outcomes, like population collapse, and account for uncertainties. And it requires greater caution when knowledge is less complete or less reliable.
But the Department
of Fisheries and Oceans "management plan" for the seals does not take into account these extreme conditions and the resultant high pup mortality rate. What's more, anomalies like this, according to studies by seal scientist Dr. David Lavigne, may become the new normal.
The Oceans Act acknowledges the need for emergency measures at times like these:
"The Governor in Council, on the recommendation of the Minister, may make orders exercising any power under section 35 (i.e., designating marine protected areas, and prohibiting classes of activities within these areas) and on an emergency basis, where the Minister is of the opinion that a marine resource or habitat is or is likely to be at risk..."
Tell Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn to apply the Precautionary Approach and implement the emergency measure of calling off the seal hunt this year. Find his contact information here.
Massacre and Mayhem in 1981
In 1981, when the ice conditions were not as bad as they are this year, harp seals whelped on the shores of Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. The DFO responded by issuing seal killing permits to inexperienced people in these provinces. What resulted were unspeakable horrors. In what has been described as scenes of mayhem, protesters and defenders of the seals scuffled with the novice sealers (as well as many men and boys who did not even have permits or any knowledge of or experience in sealing) as they
went to the shores and brutally massacred the pups. Under normal conditions, as many as 42% of the seals killed are skinned alive. One can only imagine how many of the seals killed in 1981 were skinned alive, left convulsing in pain for hours, or butchered in unspeakable ways...
Stephen Best, author and Founding Director of Environment Voters Canada, filmed the 1981 "hunt" for IFAW and writes about his experience with government officials and sealers: "In 1981, DFO officials tried to order the evacuation of every home within 1/2 mile of the beach where the seal hunt was taking place. They also tried to close off Prince Edward Island National Park to the public. Also, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police assisted DFO officials in what turned out to be illegal arrests and seizures. What was seized was exposed but unprocessed motion picture and still film of the event. All of this material was exposed to light by DFO officials and thereby destroyed. In the subsequent court cases the judge accused the DFO officials of being "liars."
"The confrontations became very ugly. In one instance, I was driving a pickup truck and towing a boat we planned to launch at "Savage Harbour." At Savage Harbour a dozen or so pickup trucks, filled with fishermen, arrived. The men stoned our vehicle. The only thing that saved us from serious injury was my brilliant, fear-fueled driving and the fact that we had been tailed by an undercover RCMP police officer who intervened. None of our assailants were ever charged despite the fact that the officer was on the scene and witnessed the event and took the names of the assailants."
As this report indicates, if the DFO refuses to call off the "hunt" and the ice conditions remain as poor as they are currently, more confrontation between sealers and seal defenders may result. In fact, as a contingency plan, seal defenders may wish to begin making arrangements to visit Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia this spring. If you decide to go, expect confrontations and anticipate the possibility of being arrested.
For more information on the ice conditions and what they forebode visit these links:
Already about 1500 grey seal pups have perished due to the poor ice conditions. More did not die because these seals are not hunted. Read about their ordeal and the predictions for the harp seals here.
Monitor the ice conditions on this Canadian government web site.
A scientific paper on trends in the ice conditions: Johnston DW, Friedlaender AS, Torres LG, Lavigne DM. 2005. "Variation in sea ice cover on the east coast of Canada from 1969 to 2002: climate variability and implications for harp and hooded seals." Climate Research 29: 209-255. View the preliminary results online.