Canada unveils annual seal hunt, slams activists Source: Reuters
(Adds comments, background) By David Ljunggren OTTAWA, March 22 (Reuters) - Canada said on Tuesday it would allow 320,000 young seals to be killed this year and launched an unusually strong attack on activists who promise to boycott Canadian seafood products in a bid to stop the hunt. Ottawa says the hunt helps ensure the health of what it describes as a booming seal population. But pictures of hunters clubbing defenseless animals to death have turned the event into an annual public relations nightmare for the government. The two-month hunt, which starts this year on March 29, takes place on ice floes off the Atlantic coast where the seals give birth. Canada says the hunt is humane, but animal rights groups insist many animals are skinned alive and die in agony. Fisheries Minister Geoff Regan, reflecting increasing frustration with the activists, said they were issuing "misleading rhetoric and sensational images that tell a selective, biased and often false story" about the hunt. "It is a real disgrace to have such negative light being cast on the Canadian men and women of this industry... These carefully orchestrated campaigns twist the facts of the seal hunt for the benefit of a few extremely powerful and well-funded organizations," he said in a blunt statement. Officials say the population of harp seals is now five million animals, triple what it was in the 1970s, and says large-scale hunting will be allowed to continue until the number falls to 3.85 million. Ottawa says the hunt protects depleted fish stocks and provides jobs in the economically depressed eastern province of Newfoundland. The province's cod fishery collapsed a decade ago and some fishermen say seals were partly to blame. Anti-hunt activists, who held protests last week in 50 cities around the world, said they would press ahead with calls for a boycott of Canadian seafood. Canada's fishing industry exports around C$3 billion ($2.5 billion) a year to the United States while the seal hunt generates just C$16.5 million a year, mostly from pelt sales. "I think that they (the Canadian government) are feeling the heat ... they can see the really serious implication of going ahead with the hunt this year," said Pat Ragan of the Humane Society of the United States. Ragan said the campaign would target restaurant chains such as Red Lobster -- a unit of Darden Restaurants Inc. -- that buy Canadian seafood. "We're going to be encouraging consumers to enter into dialogue with their grocery stores and their restaurants and say 'Please don't serve Canadian seafood' or 'I won't buy Canadian seafood until this hunt is over'," she told Reuters. Some activists are already in the Atlantic region to watch the hunt. Officials said that if too many observers turn up they would be prevented from interfering with the hunt. ($1=$1.21 Canadian)
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'''March 23, 2005''' 
A seal, photo by Jason L. Buberal
Ottawa says it will allow the harvest of 320,000 young seals this year, prompting a backlash from international environmental activists who call for a boycott of the Canadian fisheries products.

The seal hunt is an annual event on the ice floes off the east coast of Canada where the seal nurseries give birth. This year's hunt begins March 29, and lasts for two months.

The government reports the harp seal population is large and healthy. "The harp seal herd - the most important seal herd for this industry - is estimated at around five million animals, nearly the highest level ever recorded, and almost triple what it was in the 1970s," a Department of Fisheries and Oceans statement said. Large scale hunts will continue to be allowed until the harp seal population drops below four million.

Environmental activists protest and observe the hunt annually, but this year's larger number of seals has brought a bigger response. Observers are already in the hunt area, and officials said if too many show up they will be prevented from interfering with the hunt. The annual protests, and the publication of photos of the hunt, are a public relations problem for Canada.

Protests were held in 50 cities around the world last week, and activists say they would press consumers and restaurants to avoid Canadian fish for at least the duration of the hunt.

"We're going to be encouraging consumers to enter into dialogue with their grocery stores and their restaurants and say 'Please don't serve Canadian seafood' or 'I won't buy Canadian seafood until this hunt is over'," said Pat Ragan of the Humane Society of the United States HSUS to ''Reuters''.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare sponsored two independent veterinary teams to observe the 2001 hunt which concluded the animals are often (42% of the time) killed in an inhumane manner and not in accordance with Canada's own laws.