Harp Seal Tours- Harpseals.org

HARP SEAL TOURS:
     Because there are few things more brilliant and captivating than observing at close range adult and baby Harp seals living in their natural environment, there are a few companies around the world which have made it their BUSINESS to take people to the Canadian ice floes to OBSERVE these animals rather than KILL them. (bravo!)

     It is our firm belief that, ultimately, these tours seem to be the best alternative to the annual slaughter because the tours bring in the much needed revenue to the sealing communities that the sealers "harp" so much about . Harpseals.org supports this approach 100%!

This idea is well rooted in anti seal hunt activism history:
     Back in the 1980's Captain Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society made a presentation to the Royal Commission on Seals and Sealing. One of Sea Shepherd's recommendations was to replace seal killing with seal watching. The politicians said it was a silly idea. Fortunately, tourism has not only been adopted but it has flourished and every March, hundreds of tourists are taken to the ice fields in the Magdalen Islands to see the baby seals.

Unfortunately, not all the tour companies are sincere or have the seals' best interest in mind! Some are merely fronts for the sealing communities themselves, capitalizing on the power, beauty, and draw of tourist dollars baby seals can bring in, yet SUPPORTING THE SEALING COMMUNITIES THAT KILL THEM.

HARPSEALS.ORG, therefore, SUPPORTS THE SINCERE ONES AND URGES BOYCOTTS OF THE OTHERS.
One such example demonstrating the above stated phenomena occured on the 2003 Sea Shepherd ice campaign, during which time we undertook an investigation of various tourist operations to the ice. What we found was very disturbing. Captain Watson had the opportunity to approach a Travel Wild Expeditions harp seal tour group basing out of the Magdalen Islands on March 9th, 2003. He found the tour guide for this group to be wearing an animal skin hat (unknown origin) and was harshly questioned about why the Sea Shepherd crew had approached their group.

After this brief and decidedly unfriendly encounter, Captain Watson questioned two tourists in the group from New Mexico. They were not aware of the escalation in quota and told Paul about the briefing they had recieved from their tour guides prior to coming to the ice:

The tour guides told them that the seal populations needed to be reduced, and that the seals were responsible for the decline of the codfish populations and the destruction of the cod fishery.

Clearly this kind of tourist organization continues to spread propaganda and misinformation about the seal hunt.

HARPSEALS.ORG FIRMLY BELIEVES THAT IF TOUR GROUPS ARE GOING TO BRING TOURISTS TO THE ICE TO SEE THE BABY SEALS, THEY SHOULD TELL PEOPLE ABOUT THE TRUTH OF THE SEAL SLAUGHTER... Bottom line.

If they don't do that, what kind of a tour group can it be?
Answer: It's a group run by sealers and people sympathetic to the slaughter of seals. On many of these tours, helicopter pilots and tour guides actually inform the sealers on the Magdalen Islands of the coordinates to find the seals! This means that the money you pay for a tour to the ice actually helps the sealers to find the seals. In fact, the tourists are given briefings and told blatant lies about the seal kill. They are told that it no longer takes place in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and they are told that it is necessary for the seals to be killed off Newfoundland because the populations need to be controlled and that the seals are responsible for the destruction of the cod fish.

    So how does a seal loving person do the right thing and know which of these companies to support and which ones to oppose? The key is in knowing where the seal loving tourists are LODGED (in their all inclusive packages) while visiting the seals and also in the INFORMATION the tour groups get while they are actually on the ice with the seals.

BOYCOTT 'TRAVEL WILD EXPEDITIONS' AND THE CHATEAU MADELINOT ON THE MAGDALEN ISLANDS
     We believe any tour group that originates with the Chateau Madelinot in the Magdalen Islands is a front for the sealers, therefore, we urge you to BOYCOTT these scoundrels:

Travel wild Expedition's website is located here and their number in Quebec is: 1-800-368-0077. TravelWild Expeditions group stays at the Chateau Madelinot in the town of Cap-aux-Meules, which is near the airport and where all the seal watching originates.

Chateau Madilinot's website is located here and their mailing address is: 323, route 199 C.P. 265, Cap-aux-Meules, Îles de la Madeleine (Québec) G0B 1B0, and their telephone number is: (418) 986-2211 or toll free 1-(800) 661-4537, and fax:(418) 986-2886

You can also EMAIL them here. Contact: Émile Richard, Jean-Yves Thériault, or both.

TELL THEM YOU WILL NOT PATRONIZE ANY NATURE TOUR THAT SUPPORTS THE SLAUGHTER OF THE SEALS.

IF YOU WANT TO SEE THE SEALS ON THE ICE:
     Sea Shepherd suggests Natural Habitat Adventures. Natural Habitat Adventures was the original tour operation going to the seals. When residents of the Magdalens saw that the operation was profitable, they set up a competing tour group. (Travel Wild Expeditions above)

NATURAL HABITAT ADVENTURES-
(Organization Website- "the inter-governmental body for cooperation on the conservation, management and study of marine mammals in the North Atlantic.)

BRUSHING SEALS FOR THEIR FUR:
As might easily be imagined, baby Harp seals have some of the most amazingly insulative fur on the planet. Each individual hair follicle of their famous "white coats" is hollow, keeping the babies warm and happy in the subzero temperatures. As the babies continue through their stages of growth, they begin to molt and lose this outer layer of super insulative hair. This is when they can be easily brushed and the hair collected for bedding and other applications. Paul Watson and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has attempted on multiple occasions to introduce this idea to the world, and more importantly, to the Canadian sealers themselves. Although the money offered to the sealers for each brushed seal was MORE THAN THE SUBSIDY OF AN UNWANTED PELT, the idea was rejected time after time.

The sealers reasoning for rejection? As one sealer put it in 1999 in the Magdelein Islands, "Seals are meant to be clubbed, not brushed. We dont want nothing to do with no faggoty idea like that". (yes, an another amazing yet actual documented quote caught by the media)

The 4 stages of harp seal growth are described here: (courtesy of IFAW)

1) Thin Whitecoat - Approximately 4 days.
After two or three days, the pups lose their yellow colouration - it is either bleached by the sun or washed off by rain - and turn a pristine white. Feeding regularly on mother’s milk, these thin whitecoats gain weight quickly, and grow stronger and more coordinated in their movements.

Fat Whitecoat - Approximately 7 days.
Thanks to the high energy content of mother’s milk (which contains more than 50% fat by the end of nursing), pups do not stay thin for long. In about a week, most pups have gained close to 14 kg (30 lbs). Nursing lasts for about 12 days and, during this time, the pups will grow about 2.2 kg (5 lbs) a day. More than half of this weight gain is stored as blubber.

2) Ragged Jacket - Approximately 21 days.
Shortly after weaning, the pup’s white coat becomes loose and begins to fall out, revealing the short, dark spotted juvenile coat underneath. Their name is derived from the coat’s “raggedy” appearance. This stage lasts a week or more. Once a seal reaches this stage, it may be legally killed during the commercial hunt.

3) Beater - Approximately 25 days to 1 year.
Once the white coat is completely moulted, exposing the short, black spotted, silvery grey pelt underneath, the animal is called a ‘beater’. This name refers to the poorly developed swimming skills of these young seals as they ‘beat’ the surface of the water during their first attempts at swimming and diving.

4) Adult - Lifespan: up to 35 years
Females reach sexual maturity between ages 5 and 6, males mature between ages 6 and 7. Females give birth to one pup each year.

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