The efforts and actions from dedicated individuals and organizations opposing the annual killing of the Harp seals haVE a history of roughly 50 years...

THE BASIC STRATEGY OF OPPOSITION:
Although strategy details have been discussed, argued over, and altered over the years by the different groups and individuals involved in the opposition, the basics are still the same as they ever were and are no secret to anyone.

What the hell am I doing out here? (feels so good...) Photo of Ian Robichaud by Ignacio Aronovich

As Brian Davies, founder of IFAW once wrote in his book "Red Ice, My fight to Save the Seals", the idea for an effective opposition campaign is to "attack on 3 fronts.

Firstly, I would set out to create in Canada a public attitude hostile to the hunt. At the same time Europeans, who formed the main market, must be persuaded not to buy anything made from harp seal pelts. And foreigners must be encouraged to deluge the Canadian government with protest letters."

Harpseals.org takes the point of view that this basic strategy still holds true, however THE PARTICULARS NEED TO BE ALTERED TO REFLECT THE CURRENT CONDITIONS OF THE PELT MARKET, CULTURE, AND PUBLIC ATTITUDE AND AWARENESS LEVELS, and of course, to harness the new power the media is capable of bringing to both sides of the issue. (see our "What YOU can do to help section" for more details)

Having said that, IT IS OUR CURRENT BELIEF THAT THE CANADIAN SEAFOOD BOYCOTT IS THE SINGLE MOST EFFECTIVE KEY TO ENDING THE BOYCOTT.

THE KEY PLAYERS OF THE PAST:
Although many individuals have been involved in varying degrees of opposition to the slaughter over the years, there have been a few key players that have stood out from the rest when it comes to saving SEAL'S LIVES over the years.

Between them, they share a track record of nearly 30 years of anti-sealing activism.

1) GREENPEACE- Led by the courageous Paul Watson, (who since founded the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society), it was Greenpeace that is so famous for its early opposition efforts and public awareness campaigns of the late 70's.

In Spring 2005 , Greenpeace produced a report on the mismanagement of the seals by the Canadian Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), entitled, "The Canadian Seal Hunt: No Management and No Plan." For years prior to this, and since the release of this report, however, Greenpeace has been absent from the seal campaign.

2) IFAW- Formed by Brian Davies, the International Fund for Animal Welfare was at the forefront of the seal hunt opposition effort for over 30 years.
This organization has been involved in producing scientific reports on the seals and documenting the seal slaughter over the years. In the 1980's, IFAW led the effort at boycotting Canadian seafood in the UK and was involved with the initiative to ban the importation of whitecoat pelts in Europe.

These days, IFAW is involved once again in monitoring the seal slaughter.

3) SEA SHEPHERD CONSERVATION SOCIETY- Employing a host of different strategies against the killing, the ever-creative animal activist and master of media Paul Watson has been fighting to save the seals for over 30 years.

One of the founding members of Greenpeace, Paul Watson has led, organized, designed and/ or participated in over 10 harp seal saving campaigns over the years, including the 2005 ship campaign to the seal "hunt" in which Sea Shepherd crew were attacked by sealers. Hated by the sealers and loved by seals and compassionate human beings worldwide, Paul Watson makes a difference with creative, direct action, non-violent, and effective campaigns.
These days, Sea Shepherd is involved in the campaign to recruit restaurants to the Canadian seafood boycott, in outreach and protests, in collecting petition signatures, and in organizing publicity events for the seals.
In addition to opposing the seal kill for years, this organization is the world's only enforcer of the lame IWC laws on the high seas...

Simply put: this organization fights forcefully for whales, seals, dolphins, sharks, turtles and all other species of marine life!

To see what these and other organizations are doing NOW for the seals, visit our section on THE UNIFIED OPPOSITION IN 2005!

And here's our link list of
OTHER SEAL DEFENDERS AND RELATED GROUPS

HOW THIS WEBSITE CAME TO BE:
"This site came about as a result of several things. Although I was already aware of what was going on with the seal hunt, my trip to the ice with Paul Watson and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in the spring of 2003 really seemed to set the wheels in motion."

Read about the SEA SHEPHERD CONSERVATION SOCIETY SEAL CAMPAIGN, 2003.

"The hours on the ice with the seals were simply magical and life transforming. In fact, it was the SEALS themselves that spurred me on to try and build the mother of all anti-kill websites. In several long research sessions on the computer, I was finding many good sites about the seal hunt opposition efforts, but decided that it would be beneficial to compile all the information into one, easy to use, research station... a kind of one stop shopping for anybody wanting to know more.

After that, the next time I got to the ice was again with the Sea Shepherd, and that was another experience alltogether...

Read about the SEA SHEPHERD CONSERVATION SOCIETY SEAL CAMPAIGN, 2005

Although making no apologies for publicly stating here that I am indeed a seal lover, MY reasons for putting an END to this tragedy go far beyond the love of the Harp seal as a single species.

To me, these magnificent seal beings are more than just "another threatened animal species"... they are symbolic of a much greater phenomena indeed; the future well-being of our planet itself.

Of course, it goes without saying that the actual horror and insanity of the killing go far beyond what words in this website could possibly convey... but that is, in fact, precisely the reason why it exists: to try and do everything in its power to convey the facts, truth and details of the situation because I believe this annual seal slaughter is a story that must be told in order to retain our dignity as compassionate human beings."

-Ian Robichaud, Harpseals.org