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Harpseals.org is a 501(c)(3) Non-Profit Charity Working to End the Slaughter of Harp Seals and Other Seals in Canada and Namibia

Three species of seal pups that are victims of slaughters: grey seal (killed by Canadian fishermen), Cape fur seal (killed by Namibians), harp seal (killed by Canadian fishermen). Grey seal pup photo by PA, Cape fur seal pup photo by Francois Hugo, Harp seal pup photo by IFAW.

Good news for seals: Russia bans seal product imports

According to a World Trade Organization (WTO) document, Russia banned seal product imports in August. Russia is Canada's largest pelt market, so this is great news for seals.

We still must contend with the undemocratic WTO, that meets in secret and answers to no one. The Canadian government is expected to file a challenge against Russia now that Russia has been granted membership into the WTO. This will be in addition to Canada's challenge against the European Union for its ban on seal product imports.

Read more here.

Harp seals also must contend with global climate change, which is causing dramatic reductions in sea ice, on which harp seals rely for pupping. The future of the species is in peril. It is high time that Canada works to protect seals and bans the killing of seals once and for all.

Read about the Duke/IFAW study on the threat of climate change here.

Canada's Senate is considering another seal massacre: grey seals would be slaughtered by the tens of thousands if this proposal is approved.

Once again, the Canadian government is blaming seals for its fishermen's woes. After nearly wiping out the North Atlantic cod by overfishing, while for years blaming the harp seals, the Canadian government has lately been blaming the grey seals for the failure of the cod to recover since the commercial fishing moratorium was introduced over twenty years ago.

Though some of scientists in Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans question the efficacy of a seal cull in restoring the cod population, Canada's government has not often based its decisions on science, let alone ethics. Read more here and here.

Please take action for the grey seals today, by sending the Canadian Senate Committee on Fisheries and Oceans an email. And remember to Boycott Canadian seafood.

Canada's 2011 Harp Seal Slaughter

Canada's fisheries minister, Gail Shea, set a record quota for killing seals this year: 468,200. But two factors thwarted the sealers' killing spree this year: our campaigns to end sealing and climate change.

Sealers in 2011 killed 37,609 seal pups. (This is the official count.) This includes over 1,700 ragged jackets (molting seals under 3 weeks old). The seal 'hunt' remains open as long as the quota is not met, but commercial sealing boats are not currently going out to kill seals. Thus the number of seal pups killed this year is expected to total about 8% of the quota.

This year, observers from IFAW and HSI witnessed more violations of the regulations that are supposed to prevent horrendous cruelty - like checking for blinking and cutting an artery on the pups to make sure that they are dead.

They witnessed the shooting of the youngest seal pups who legally can be killed - the 'ragged jackets'. One pup they saw was shot in the neck and left to suffer, crying in agony. Nevertheless, the Canadian government continues to claim that the seal 'hunt' is humane. Harpseals.org contends that it is senseless cruelty and must be ended once and for all.

Two factors prevented sealers from killing more seals this spring:

1. Few seal pups were to be found. In this second phase of the 'hunt', as in the first phase, the seal pups have been few in number. In the first phase of the slaughter, sealers on only four boats from the Magdalen Islands went out to kill seals. They were able to kill only about 11% of their 105,000 seal quota because most of the seal pups drowned this year due to the extreme lack of sea ice.

2. Prices for seal pelts are low, and few buyers are to be found. This is because of the campaigns that we and other organizations have been running for years; campaigns that have resulted in the EU ban on seal product imports.

Now, it is time to put the final nail in the coffin of this dying 'industry'. We will do this by spreading the boycott of Canadian seafood, which is already putting great pressure on the fishing industry that is behind this seal slaughter.

MEAT COVE — Poor ice conditions in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence are likely to endanger this year’s harp seal pups. Cape Breton Post, March, 2011

As global warming worsens, the (un)natural mortality rate of the harp seals worsens, too. Harp seal mothers need large, sturdy ice floes to give birth to their pups, and pups do not know how to swim for the first few weeks of their lives. When the ice floes are sparse and the ice is thin, seal pups drown in large numbers. This year, the ice floes are in very poor condition. The February ice cover was the worst in recorded history, but this isn't stopping the Canadian government (i.e., the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, DFO, led by Minister Gail Shea) from allowing and promoting the killing of hundreds of thousands of seal pups, on top of all those who are dying by drowning.

The Travesty of Canada's Seal "Management" Program

Mike Hammill, DFO Scientist

It is clear, even from the statements of the DFO's own scientists, that the Canadian government is violating the Precautionary Approach to marine ecosystem management by which they claim to abide. “We can’t really measure the mortality,” said [DFO Biologist Mike] Hammill. “We (won’t) know the true impact until about five years later when these animals will start to have their own young and we will see if there’s a drop in pup production or not.”

Considering the harp seal population guesstimates that the DFO has put out in the past few years, ranging from 5-6 million to 9 million, the incompetence of the DFO is obvious; DFO mismanagement is alive and well.

Since 1996, the numbers of harp seal pups killed have rivaled the level of killing in the 1950's and 1960's. During the years 1952-1970, the average number of harp seals killed was just over 291,000. From 1996 to 2008, the average number of harp seals killed was just over 265,000. The level of killing of the seals during the 1950's and 1960's caused a severe decline in the population, leading conservationists to demand that a quota system be established.

After the DFO was forced to establish this system in 1971, the rate of killing decreased by over 40%. (From 1971 to 1982, the average dropped to just over 165,000.) Then, in 1983, when the European Union banned the imports of whitecoat (less than 2 week old) harp seal pelts (at that time the whitecoats were being targeted by sealers), the market for seal pelts crashed. Sealers thus killed fewer seals. The average number of harp seals killed was about 52,000 from 1983-1995.

Due to the reduction in the killing, the harp seal population grew from less than 2 million to over 5 million, still much lower than the historic population, estimated to be around 20 million, before Europeans came to Newfoundland and began killing seals.

But in 1996, after the Canadian government developed markets for pelts from 3 week old seals, the killing rates escalated. In addition to the increased killing, almost back to pre-1971 levels, the ice floes have become more and more sparse and less and less stable, causing large increases in drowning.

So how could the harp seal population grow from about 5 million to over 9 million in the past few years? Leave it up to the agency that wiped out the North Atlantic cod to come up with numbers like these.

Help the Seals - Boycott Canadian Seafood

How can you help end the slaughter of seal pups in Canada? The best way is to join the boycott of Canadian seafood.

Harpseals.org has been conducting studies to assess the effectiveness of the Canadian seafood boycott campaign. We have found that Americans are very willing to join the boycott. In fact, two months after viewing our edited 30 second TV spot, over 45% of people polled in our nationwide study are willing to participate in the Canadian seafood boycott: over 25% are boycotting Canadian seafood or intend to boycott Canadian seafood; another 21% say that they would join the boycott if they knew how. After they learn about the Candian seal slaughter, what we have found is that they simply need to know how to identify Canadian seafood.

Harpseals.org aims to inform Americans about the seal hunt and provide Americans with the knowledge they need to help end the slaughter - by boycotting Canadian seafood. Please help us as we begin our national advertising campaign for the seals.

In addition to boycotting Canadian seafood, please boycott tourism to Canada, especially to the Maritimes provinces.

Protests and Actions Against the Seal Hunt

Each year, activists put pressure on the sealers and the fishing industry that supports the yearly massacre. Join or organize a protest or other event to spread the word in 2011, and help put an end to this atrocity forever.

Send emails and call Canadian politicians - bombard them with calls for an end to the slaughter, once and for all.

The Grey Seal Kill of 2011

Sealers arrived Thursday, February 25th, on Hay Island, to kill the grey seal pups. The Canadian government gave them a quota of 1,900 pups. This slaughter is taking place in what is supposed to be a protected wilderness. Killing seal pups seems to be the exception to the wildlife protection regulations.

This year, they used low-caliber rifles as an experiment. Both the initiator of this experiment, Dr. Pierre-Yves Daoust, a wildlife pathologist at the University of Prince Edward Island, and anti-seal hunt activists who observed the killing, said that several seals were not killed right away. Daoust says 90% were killed instantly from the bullet.

The sealers claim that they have two buyers who are interested in the pelts, flesh, and internal organs of the pup. One of these buyers is Northeast Coast Sealers Cooperative, of Newfoundland, a company that received a federal grant of $50,000 to develop a plan for "value-added seal products". So Canadian taxpayers are footing the bill for the killing of these grey seal pups.

The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans says that sealers do not plan to kill more grey seals this year. However, sealer Robert Courtney has said that he and fellow Nova Scotia fishermen/sealers may in fact kill more grey seals this year.

Read more about the grey seal 'hunt' on our 2011 seal hunt page. Take action. Read background information on the grey seal 'hunts' here.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans - Wasting Canada's Money

Canada's Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, Gail Shea, continues to spend taxpayer dollars traveling the world to peddle seal skins and other seal products. In addition, the Canadian government continues to try to overturn the European Union's ban on seal product imports. Write to Canada's politicians here.

Canada's reckless disregard for marine life has a long history. Its Department of Fisheries and Oceans is infamous for allowing fishermen to wipe out the North Atlantic cod fishery. It has used the seals as scapegoats, with propaganda that lingers in the minds of fishermen and other Canadians in the sealing provinces, even though this official government deception ended years ago. Read more about this history here.

from the Chronicle Herald video thechronicleherald.ca

Fisheries Minister Pied

Traveling around the world on the Canadian taxpayers' dime, Fisheries Minister Gail Shea and company have been trying to drum up interest in seal skins. (Read more here.)

In February, 2010, one seal activist gave Ms. Shea a piece of her mind.

Canadian sealer striking seal pup. Photo by HSI, AFP, Getty

Over 67,000 seal pups were killed in the spring of 2010, and many were killed for nothing, their pelts being tossed back into the water.

The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), under the leadership of Fisheries Minister Gail Shea, continues to put Canadian tax money into trying to drum up markets for dead seals.

Read more about the seal 'hunt' in 2010 and previous years.

Activists in the U.S. continue to promote the Canadian seafood boycott and the Canadian tourism boycott. European activists have begun promoting these boycotts as well. All are welcome to use Harpseals.org's new Seal Activist Networking tool.

A Brief Background on Canada's Seal Hunt

Each year, in the harp seal slaughter, a few thousand Canadian fishermen bludgeon and shoot two-week to two-month-old seals, hook and drag them and skin many of these pups while they are still alive and conscious. They then sell the skins to European and Asian furriers. The bodies of these seals are left to rot.

In this competitive commercial slaughter, each sealer charges across the ice floes in an effort to kill as many seal pups as he can before someone else gets the pups. In 2008, sealers on longliners on the Front (the second phase of the seal hunt, off the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador) killed their quota of seals in just two days.

This atmosphere discourages adherence to rules and regulations, such as checking for blinking eyes before skinning the seal pups. Observers of the hunt have documented hundreds of violations of these regulations, but the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), which regulates the seal hunt, has rarely levied any charges against the perpetrators.

Canadian sealer clubbing seals. (c) HSUS / Brian Skerry

In 2008, four sealers were killed and four sealing vessels were destroyed in the treacherous icy waters. The Canadian Coast Guard rescued several sealers (at Canadian taxpayers' expense), but some sealers died in the attempted rescue. Read the news reports about the 2008 slaughter here.

The slaughter of seals in Canada has taken place for hundreds of years. Today, this annual ritual offers so little economic value to the sealers, and even to the sealing boat captains (whose take is usually 50%), that many stayed home in 2008.

To learn more about the history of sealing in Canada and the modern seal hunt, visit our About the Hunt section.

Lone harp seal pup among dozens of harp seal carcasses left behind by sealers. (c) SF Bay / Indymedia

One person who has observed the slaughter of seal pups for many years and who was born and raised in the sealing province of Newfoundland and Labrador is Rebecca Aldworth. In her journal, she described what she saw on the ice floes:

"As we passed one large red vessel, we saw sealers jump off the side onto the ice. They ran towards a single live seal pup, hakapiks in hand.

The pup, sensing danger, tried desperately to crawl towards the edge of the water. But the two men bearing down on her were faster. One sealer struck her on the side, then twice again on the head. He grabbed her hind flippers and pulled her back across the ice, stopping to club her twice more. He grabbed her front flipper and turned her over.

But then the second sealer kicked the wounded pup with his boot. Seeing a reaction, he motioned to the first sealer, who clubbed her four more times on the head.

Not to be outdone, the second sealer grabbed his hakapik and clubbed the baby seal once more. He flipped her over and began to cut her open -- only to roll her back over so the first sealer could club her three more times. This poor baby seal was clubbed thirteen times in total."

Snow crabs from Canada are being boycotted.

How Harpseals.org Works for Seals

Harpseals.org provides extensive information on all aspects of the seal hunt, so that individuals can understand what takes place, when the seal hunt occurs, how the sealers kill the seals, where the killing occurs, who the sealers are, and why the killing continues.

Explore the site through the links on the left and top of this page.

We also work tirelessly to end the slaughter and provide information and assistance to seal activists all over the world. Our primary strategy to end the annual Canadian seal hunt is the Canadian seafood boycott. This boycott puts pressure on the sealers themselves and the industry behind the slaughter.

We invite you to use our website to learn about the seal hunt, and we hope you will join us in working to end it.