U.S. observers quit seal hunt
By CP
April 17, 2006

ST. JOHN'S, NFLD. -- Another anti-sealing group that has been observing the controversial East Coast hunt has pulled out of Atlantic Canada.

Activists with the Humane Society of the United States left the region yesterday after weeks of documenting the kill in between sometimes-violent confrontations with local residents and hunt supporters.

Spokesperson Rebecca Aldworth said a day earlier her group would stay until the hunt had finished.

About 200 small sealing boats remain on the ice. But Aldworth said now that larger vessels have filled their quotas and ended their hunt, the group had seen everything they needed.

Gun blast hurts man in seal hunt
By CP
April 16, 2006

ST. ANTHONY, Nfld. -- A hunter aboard a sealing vessel was airlifted to hospital after a gun exploded and injured his hand.

Search-and-rescue spokesman Kevin Barnes said the 33-year-old man was on a vessel in the Strait of Belle Isle area at the time.

"One of their sealing guns exploded and he severely damaged his hand," Barnes said yesterday from St. John's.

Most Newfoundland sealers use rifles instead of the spiked clubs called hakapiks favoured in last month's smaller hunt on the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

The injured man was airlifted Friday to hospital in St. Anthony, on the northern tip of Newfoundland. His condition wasn't known yesterday. Search-and-rescue officials have received a number of calls since the hunt opened Wednesday, although most calls have been minor.

Seal-hunt backers box in protesters
By CP
April 14, 2006

BLANC-SABLON, QUE. -- Supporters of the seal hunt lashed back at news reporters and anti-sealing protesters yesterday, boxing them into a hotel here and even ramming a media van as the slaughter off Labrador's coast began.

No one was hurt, but temperatures were raised in the controversial hunt, which this year has pitted anti-sealing pop stars against politicians and East Coast residents who say they need the money the hunt brings in each year.

Seal hunter Marius Lavalee confirmed someone used a large truck to ram a van carrying reporters to the local airport for a helicopter ride to the sealing grounds.

"We wanted to try and stop them," he said. "Then it got violent. They tried to run one guy over."

Dozens of residents in Blanc-Sablon, near the Labrador border, also surrounded the hotel when they learned foreign journalists and members of the U.S. Humane Society were there.

Late in the day, Quebec provincial police officers escorted 15 activists, reporters and photographers from the hotel and drove them in police vans to a nearby airport. They arrived safely.

Rebecca Aldworth, a Humane Society member staying at the hotel, said a charter airplane was hired to fly the group to an undisclosed location.

"This is going to be the longest drive of my life," Aldworth said as she prepared to leave the hotel. "The people outside look very aggressive."

Aldworth said the Humane Society will continue to document the hunt off Labrador.

Sealers from Newfoundland and Labrador are permitted to slaughter 230,000 seals in this year's hunt on the Front -- a vast and unforgiving area north of Newfoundland.

Another 91,000 seals already have been killed in the Gulf of St. Lawrence hunt, which finished last week.

Federal Fisheries Department officials estimate up to 270 large boats were involved in the hunt, most of them working the floes off Cartwright in Labrador. Another 350 small boats are working further south.

The media van that was rammed was knocked off the road. Lavalee said a man then jumped on the hood of the van.

"They wouldn't stop with him. They took him about a kilometre or so. He got off after a while."

Isabelle Lafontaine, speaking for the Quebec provincial police, said the force is investigating the collision.

Yvonne Jones, a provincial politician for the Labrador district of Cartwright-L'Anse au Clair, disputed claims the animal-rights activists were in danger.

"I've been there the whole morning and I have not seen one thing that would be considered to be violent or threatening in any way," Jones said.

"This is a very peaceful protest."

Jones said that at one point, about 100 fishers had surrounded the hotel. She said they intended to continue the blockade until the hunt ends.

Larry Yetman, a Fisheries Department spokesperson in Newfoundland and Labrador, said the hunt was extended through yesterday and officials will review the catch numbers to see if it should be extended further.

Yetman said sealers are having trouble finding large quantities of younger seals.

Gory last phase of Canadian seal hunt opens
234,000 seal pups likely to be slaughtered in cull off coast of Newfoundland

ST. JOHN'S, Newfoundland - The final leg of Canada's contentious seal hunt moved to the ice floes off northeastern Newfoundland and Labrador on Wednesday, with sealers expected to slaughter 234,000 more harp seal pups in just one day.

International animal-rights activists were to be present to document the final phase of the annual cull, which the Canadian government insists is humane and sustainable, with a healthy population of more than 6 million harp seals.

One of the most prominent animal-rights activists, Rebecca Aldworth of the Humane Society of the United States, was not on the ice, however, as the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans has accused her of disturbing the hunt and declined to issue her an observation permit.

"It's unthinkable that so many animals will die a horrific death in such a short space of time," Aldworth said in a news release.

She and two other HSUS observers were accused last month of coming within a 10-meter (33-foot) buffer zone between their inflatable boat and a sealing vessel, a claim she denies.

Hunters already have taken their quota of 91,000 seals in the Gulf of St. Lawrence hunt, which ended last week.

"People were apprehensive about the ice in the gulf, but it was a very good year and the quotas were caught very fast," said Roger Simon, spokesman for the federal Fisheries Department.

Fisheries officials said between 200 and 300 fishing boats had set sail from northeastern Newfoundland and Labrador for the last installment of the hunt.

The hunters will kill and skin as many of the marine mammals as they can Wednesday. There will be no hunting Thursday, while fisheries officials count the pelts to see if the quota has been met. The hunt will resume Friday if the quota has not been reached.

Protesters with the International Fund for Animal Welfare said they would photograph the slaughter from a helicopter, using scenes of carnage to promote a ban on Canadian seal products.

"If we can stop the markets for seal products, hopefully, we can reduce the number of seals being killed," said Sheryl Fink, a spokeswoman for the IFAW.

Canada's biggest market for seal pelts always has been, and remains, Norway.

The commercial seal hunt in Atlantic Canada in 2005 created more than C$16.5 million (US$14.4 million; euro11.9 million) for the isolated fishing communities in the Canadian Maritimes.

Newfoundland sealer Mark Small said that contrary to what hunt opponents are saying, the market for seal products is strong and growing.

"It's a great success story," he said of the seal industry.