Boycott Canadian Seafood

Frequently Asked Questions about the Boycott Canadian Seafood Campaign

What is the Canadian Seafood Boycott?

The Canadian Seafood Boycott is a broadly-conceived consumer, retailer, and industry-wide boycott of Canadian seafood products. The purpose of the boycott is to strip the Canadian commercial harp seal hunt of all economic value. Most Canadian sealing is done for economic gain.The Canadian Seafood Boycott targets the very people who slaughter the harp seals, and those individuals, industries and businesses that directly profit from the largest and cruelest marine mammal slaughter in the world.

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Why are environmental and animal welfare groups calling for a Canadian Seafood Boycott?

After researching the history of the Canadian seal hunt and successful animal and environmental protection campaigns, it is clear that a consumer boycott of Canadian seafood exports is the most effective strategy, at this time, to force the Canadian government and the Canadian fishing industry to end Canada's commercial seal hunt. The Canadian Seafood Boycott is also the most effective way for the animal and environmental protection community concerned about the seal hunt to regain political relevance and negotiating power--something they have lost since the the mid-1980s.

Past boycotts give us some indication of the potential of the Canadian Seafood Boycott campaign. For instance, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) 1984 boycott of Canadian seafood, in the United Kingdom and the United States (1984-1985), demonstrated not only the susceptibility of the Canadian fishing industry to a consumer boycott, but also that the fishing industry, at all levels, was concerned enough and economically effected enough to call for an end to sealing.

Experience and history have shown that the Canadian seal hunt policy can be influenced by a consumer boycott of Canadian seafood.

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Will a successful Canadian Seafood Boycott hasten the end of the Canadian seal hunt?

A definitive answer cannot be given, because the opposition’s response to a Canadian seafood boycott cannot be predicted with certainty. Nonetheless, it can be stated with considerable confidence that the Canadian government and the Canadian sealing and fishing industries will phase out the seal hunt, if they are convinced that there will be no relief otherwise from the mounting economic losses caused by the Canadian Seafood Boycott.

Despite the noisy rhetoric in favor of sealing, few of even the most bombastic seal hunt proponents are prepared to lose many dollars to insure its continuation. Pride pays few bills.

A Canadian seafood boycott that depresses the wholesale price in export markets will result in the Canadian government and industry reconsidering seal hunt policies. The decision they make will depend primarily on two factors: the actual effects of the boycott and the decision-maker’s perception of the determination of the boycott organizers and partners.

A Canadian seafood boycott will, in fact, depress seafood product prices. Therefore, the perceptions of the determination of the environmental and animal welfare groups promoting the boycott will, for the most part, decide the government’s and industry’s response.

A determined environmental and animal protection community can prevail – will prevail – for the pragmatic reason that the most powerful economic actors in the fishing industry – those most affected by the boycott—will not and cannot suffer sustained losses for the commercial seal hunt; they will compel the Canadian government to end it.

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How long will the Canadian Seafood Boycott take to end the Canadian commercial seal hunt?

If we look at previous successful seafood boycotts such as the Earth Island Institute tuna/dolphin boycott (1986-1990), the SeaWeb Atlantic swordfish boycott (1998-2000), and the IFAW United Kingdom Canadian fish-seal hunt boycott (1984-1985), we can expect the Canadian Seafood Boycott will take between 2 and 4 years to force an end to the Canadian commercial seal hunt.The determining factor will be the amount of economic loss Canadian fishermen are prepared to endure before they will either pressure Canadian federal politicians to end the commercial hunt or not go sealing themselves.

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Where is the Canadian Seafood Boycott taking place?

We have chosen the United States and the European Union as the locations for the boycott. There are three reasons for this: the international trade conditions, the public opposition, and the regulatory environment of these countries.

1. International Trade Conditions
Canada is the number one supplier of fish and seafood imports to the United States. In 2003, Canada exported 67% of its total fish and seafood exports to this market at a value of $3.3 billion. Canada’s fish and seafood exports to the European Union recorded the highest growth rate among the major markets, increasing by 21% to $446 million in 2003. For more information, visit the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans web site.

2. Public Opposition
There is significant opposition in the United States and Europe to Canada’s seal hunt. While Japan imports more fish and seafood products from Canada than Europe, its public opposition is weak. A Canadian Seafood Boycott in Japan would not be a strategically sound decision. For more information on Canada’s seafood exports by country, visit Industry Canada's Trade Data Online.

3. The Regulatory Environment
Recent regulations in the United States and the European Union require all seafood packaging to carry new labels that clearly state where the seafood was caught and where it was processed. The Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) in these markets makes it much easier for consumers to identify seafood from Canada. For more information on COOL, visit countryoforiginlabel.org

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When did the Canadian Seafood Boycott start?

The Canadian Seafood Boycott started on March 29th, 2005 -- the day that the first seal was killed that year.

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When does Canada's commercial seal hunt begin?

The start date of Canada's commercial seal hunt is largely dependent on weather conditions, and can vary from year to year.
In the years before 2005, sealers have left shore around March 15th and have set foot upon the whelping patches around March 21st. Later dates, however, have also been recorded. Before the hunt can begin, the polar pack ice must begin to thaw. The thawing and breaking up of the ice create routes of navigation that allow fishing vessels to reach the whelping patches where the hunt begins.

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Why did the 2005 hunt start so late?

In 2005, the seal hunt began later than usual due to weather conditions that prevented sealers from reaching the whelping grounds before the end of March.

On March 29, 2005, the annual seal hunt in the Gulf of St. Lawrence opened in treacherous weather and turbulent seas. The foul weather sent one 18-metre fishing boat from Newfoundland to the bottom. The second day brought gale-force winds of 90 km/h, freezing rain and fog. Thick fog forced down four helicopters in a field near Grand Tracadie. In another incident, five sealers had to jump into waters with 5-m high waves and ice floes initiating a dramatic rescue off the coast of PEI.The Newfoundland portion of the seal hunt was to begin on April 12, but it was twice delayed by bad weather, rough seas and shifting ice floes. The hunt eventually got underway and ended by April 20. The harvest quota of 320,000 seals was reached despite horrible weather.

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What seafood products are you boycotting?

We are asking consumers, seafood retailers, the hospitality industry and wholesale seafood producers, processors and distributors to boycott all seafood products from Canada. These include snow crab, rock crab, lobster, shrimp, prawns, scallops, mussels, salmon, turbot, cod, mackerel, herring, sardines, flounder, smelts, monktails, rainbow trout, flatfishes, hake, haddock, pollock, ocean perch and halibut. These can be dried, salted, smoked, canned, fresh or frozen. They are sold in grocery stores, seafood markets, reestaurants, fast food chains and cafeterias. If any seafood you intend to purchase is not labeled with the country of origin, please ask the manager.

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How will I be able to identify what is and isn’t Canadian seafood?

Consumers in the United States and Europe can take advantage of the recent Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) regulations that require all seafood packaging to clearly state where the seafood was caught and where it was processed. Simply look for the COOL label when buying seafood at your grocery store or seafood retailer. Unfortunately, the COOL regulations do not require restaurants, hotels or institutions that serve seafood to label where their seafood products come from. When eating out, ask your restaurateur or server for only non-Canadian seafood items. For more information on Country of Origin Labeling in the U.S., visit CountryofOriginLabel.org.

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Couldn’t other methods be used instead of a boycott to end the seal hunt?

Canada’s commercial seal hunt has not only persisted but also has expanded in the last 40 years. During this period, anti-seal hunt activism and worldwide public criticism have been intense. Millions of people have been appalled by seal hunt images on television. Millions of names have been put to anti-seal hunt petitions. And millions of letters have been mailed to successive Prime Ministers.

Many other methods of ending the seal hunt have been tried. Under the sensation seeking scrutiny of news cameras, French sex kittens, American movie stars, stewardesses, Congressmen, Members of the European Parliament, and tourists have all helicoptered to the seal pups. Anti-seal hunt groups have tried to introduce at least three employment alternatives to sealing. The Canadian courts have been appealed to regularly. And the scientific community has been successfully enlisted into the cause. These methods have done nothing to change the government’s sealing policy or protect seals.

The sad truth is that the seal hunt today is more secure and more robust than at any time in modern history. The history of the commercial seal hunt protest has shown that only two things work: closing the markets for seal products and boycotting Canadian seafood. In negotiating seal hunt policy with the Canadian government or the sealers themselves, the language of discussion has to be money.

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Why will the Canadian Seafood Boycott work when other methods have not?

The seal hunt persists because the previous methods used by the anti-sealing groups have failed. They have failed to change the fundamental political realities that have enabled successive Canadian governments to promote the seal hunt. The seal hunt persists because – with the sole exception of the poor seals – it is still in the best interest of everyone involved in it or of those who have control over it that it continues.

Politicians and all the major political parties benefit from promoting the seal hunt, because – no matter how cruel, environmentally destructive or costly to taxpayers – doing so wins votes in parts of Atlantic Canada and Quebec. Fishermen benefit from participating in the seal hunt because they make a profit when they slaughter seals; few would go to the ice if they didn’t. Take away the votes; take away the profits and the commercial seal hunt dies. A Canadian Seafood Boycott can make this happen. It can take the profit out of the seal hunt and hold politicians accountable for their pro-seal hunting policies where it matters most: in the bank accounts of the fishermen who go sealing and promote sealing.

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How can a boycott hold politicians accountable?

By law, practice and precedent, the gatekeepers to the Canadian government’s seal hunt policies are Members of Parliament (MP). It is this group – through interested Ministers, the Cabinet, and party caucuses – which decides policy and directs the activities of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and, therefore, the sealing industry.

Only strategies that are designed to directly affect MPs will have any hope of permanently ending the Canadian seal hunt. These MPs, however, have been taught previously by anti-seal hunt advocates that there is no political cost to be paid if the seal hunt continues. They have also been taught by the sealing community that there is a political benefit in supporting the hunt. This benefit translates into – and is limited to – eight or nine federal seats: seven in Newfoundland and one, possibly two, in Quebec.

If we can extract a political cost of a similar or greater size, then politicians will realize there is a price to pay for maintaining the hunt. The reverse will also be true. Politicians will also realize that there is a political benefit in ending the seal hunt.

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How much is the Canadian fishing industry worth?

Canada is the fifth largest exporter of fish and seafood products in the world, with exports to over 100 countries. Canada’s 2003 exports of fish and seafood products worldwide totaled $4.5 billion. Canada exported two-thirds (67 percent) of its total fish and seafood exports to the U.S. with a value of $3.3 billion. In the European Union, Canada’s fish and seafood exports are valued at $446 million. For more information, visit Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans web site, and this link.

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How much could the Canadian Seafood Boycott cost Canada’s fishing industry?

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) boycott of Canadian seafood in the United Kingdom and the United States (1984-1985) lowered the wholesale price paid for Canadian seafood at Billingsgate Market, Britain's largest commercial fish market, by 50 percent. Based on this history and the improved communications and regulatory environment for implementing a boycott in 2005, the Canadian Seafood Boycott will likely lower the wholesale price of Canadian seafood exported to the U.S. by 25 to 50 percent, causing annual economic losses of between $825 million and $1.65 billion to the sealers and the fishing industry that supports them.

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How much is Canada’s seal hunt worth?

According to the 2001 Report of the Eminent Panel on Seal Management, a panel established by the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, reliable information on the value of the sealing industry does not exist. What data there is is imprecise and lacking in consistency. The same is true today. The value that the Canadian Seafood Boycott organizers have decided to use is the inflated one provided by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans of $16 million for 2004. This figure ignores costs and indirect subsidies. It is worth noting that this value is 0.48% of the value of Canada's 2003 seafood exports to the United States.

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Why isn’t the Canadian Seafood Boycott boycotting seal products?

To end the seal hunt quickly, we need to do more than take away sealing profits. If that’s all we did, the government would simply subsidize the sealing industry – as they’ve done in the past when it served their political interests.Our task is to make the commercial seal hunt a personal, crushing, economic liability for all who condone it. And the liability must be far greater – by many orders of magnitude—than anything the government could politically and economically justify subsidizing.To find out more on government subsidies to the seal hunt, visit Economics of Canadian Sealing, a report prepared by the Canadian Institute for Business and Economics with the financial support of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

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Why is the Canadian Seafood Boycott specifically targeting Canadian seafood instead of other goods or services like tourism, for example?

For consumer activism, targeting Canadian seafood has a number of advantages over other goods and services. First, and most important, the sealers themselves and the sealing industry are components of the larger Canadian fishing industry. By boycotting Canadian seafood, a consumer is directly affecting those who go to the ice to profit from the slaughter of seals. The same cannot be said for other goods and services.

Without exception, the Canadian fishing industry, and its various trade unions and trade organizations are strong proponents of sealing. Pressure from the Canadian fishing industry as a whole, and not just the demands of the tiny minority who are sealers, was a major factor in the government’s decision to increase the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) to almost one million seals over three years. The Canadian fishing industry, rejecting independent scientific consensus, promotes the belief that seals and other marine mammals adversely affect fish stocks and impede the recovery of cod.

Geographically and politically, there is an almost perfect overlap between the sealing areas and the fishing areas. Consequently, the adverse economic effects of a Canadian seafood boycott would focus on those provinces and in those communities with strong support for sealing and the culling of seals and sea lions, rather than where there is opposition to the seal hunt.

Seafood has additional advantages over other goods and services when it comes to the marketing and management of a boycott. Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) in the United States and the European Union makes Canadian seafood readily identifiable by the consumer.

Lastly, prices paid for seafood at the wholesale level are publicly available; therefore, the effects of a boycott on the price of Canadian seafood can be monitored.

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Why are you directing so much Canadian Seafood Boycott attention at Canadian politicians?

A strategy with the objective of ending the Canadian seal hunt, must, of necessity, be targeted at the people who can, in fact, end it. Those people are the Members of Parliament in Ottawa.

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Why do Canada’s politicians support the seal hunt when there is so much worldwide opposition in Canada and around the world?

Politically, federal, provincial and municipal politicians promote the seal hunt to help them get elected. In Atlantic Canada, a politician who publicly questioned the seal hunt or who failed to wholeheartedly endorse it would have faint hope of election.

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Are there no Canadian political parties that oppose the seal hunt?

Recently, Canada’s Green Party has taken a stand against the seal hunt. The NDP, Liberal and Conservative Parties all support the hunt because doing so gets them votes in parts of Atlantic Canada and Quebec.

Much credit for the Green Party's seal hunt policy goes to Rebecca Aldworth, who made a compelling presentation about the seal hunt at the Green Party of Canada's 2004 convention. Ms. Aldworth is currently working with the Humane Society of the United States on seal hunt issues.

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Won’t the Canadian Seafood Boycott destroy people’s livelihoods?

It could, but it doesn't need to. The Government of Canada and the sealers could stop the Canadian Seafood Boycott tomorrow, by ending the commercial seal hunt. The economic effect of the Canadian Seafood Boycott is under their control. Also it is worth remembering that sealing is an off-season activity of little value. Even in Newfoundland, where more than 90% of sealers reside, revenues from the hunt account for less than 0.09% of the province’s Gross Domestic Product, and only 2.1% of the landed value of the Newfoundland fishery. If we look at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans' own propaganda which inflates the value of the seal hunt, we see that 15,000 people earned $16 million, that's $1,067 on average per person. The 15,000 figure is interesting. Compare it to Newfoundland fishing employment data, it suggests that almost every fisherman in Newfoundland must go sealing.

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Were the Canadian Government and the sealers warned beforehand about the Canadian Seafood Boycott?

Yes. The organizations behind the Canadian Seafood Boycott gave the Canadian Government every opportunity to negotiate a phase out before the hunt began. Animal Alliance of Canada and Environment Voters mailed the Canadian Seafood Boycott strategy document, Influencing Canadian Seal Hunt Policy with a Consumer Boycott of Canadian Seafood, to the MPs of the sealing provinces, the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, the Minister of Trade, the Minister of International Relations, and members of the sealing and fishing industries. They also set up meetings with some MPs and with some of the Ministries to give warning about the impending Canadian Seafood Boycott. Advertisements appeared in the Hill Times informing politicians about the intentions of the Canadian Seafood Boycott and its potential economic and political consequences. Advertisements also appeared in the fishing industry's trade publication, The Navigator. Ads, radio spots and press releases to local fishing community newspapers also appeared well before the boycott was called.

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What ways are you promoting the Canadian Seafood Boycott?

Full page advertisements have been placed by the Humane Society of the United States, in the Christian Science Monitor. The Canadian Seafood Boycott web site has been created. Email and direct mail campaigns advertised the boycott to environmental and animal protection groups. Over seventy international, national and grassroots organizations have joined as a result. Demonstrations, tabling events and leafleting have taken place. Activists convened at the seafood giant, Darden Restaurants Inc. annual convention, and organized a week long international protest of the company's continued support of the seal hunt through it's purchasing of Canadian seafood. Billboards have gone up in cities throughout the United States. Staff and volunteers from participating organizations have recruited over 100 restaurants and seafood companies to join the boycott. Sir Paul McCartney and Heather McCartney have taken on the campaign and have written to Canada's prime minister. Edward Kangas, former CEO of Deloitte Touche Tomatsu, has also written to the prime minister to denounce the seal hunt and point out the economic advantages of ending it. Jim Harris, the leader of the Green Party of Canada, has spoken out against the seal hunt on national television and has denounced the Liberal government's continued subsidies to the sealing industry.

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Why are you only trying to end Canada’s commercial seal hunt and not the cultural seal hunt?

Many Atlantic Canadians enjoy the idea, and a small minority the practice, often with family and friends, of the centuries-old, sealing tradition. History and experience tell us that “people from away” can do little to change the minds of those who cherish and enjoy the cultural aspects of sealing. The past has also taught us that animal welfare and environmental protection advocates can reduce, eliminate, or turn into liabilities the political and economic benefits of commercial sealing.

Shorn of its political and economic value, it is unlikely that Canada's commercial seal hunt would continue at its present Total Allowable Catch (TAC): 975,000 animals over the period from 2003-2005, or the TAC of 186,000-275,000 set in recent years. All that would likely remain would be a small, local, cultural hunt of about 20,000 animals, the level to which sealing declined after the imposition of the 1983 European Seal Import Ban.

Ending cultural seal hunting would prove extremely difficult, and presents a triage dilemma: monies and human resources expended to end the cultural seal hunt might protect more animals and ecosystems if used for other issues. Moreover, the cultural seal hunt will likely decline on its own as older sealers retire, and as younger people find easier, more fruitful activities.

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If the International Fund For Animal Welfare (IFAW) Canadian seafood boycott (1984-1985) was so successful, why do we still have a seal hunt?

IFAW implemented a boycott of Canadian seafood first in the United Kingdom and then in the United States.

It achieved most of its stated objectives: an end to the large, ship-based seal hunt and government seal hunt subsidies. In fact, one observer characterized the IFAW boycott as the best-organized boycott ever mounted by an animal welfare group.

Not long after the 1984-1985 seafood boycott was introduced in the United States to further increase pressure on Canada, the IFAW suspended it, believing that having achieved a ban on the large, ship-based hunt and an end to seal hunt subsidies, the sealing industry, deprived of its major economic actors, its traditional markets, and government subsidies, would wind down of its own accord. Arguably, to some extent, this is what occurred, until 1995.

Another factor persuaded the IFAW to prematurely end the boycott, and not force the Government of Canada to end the seal hunt officially for all time, an achievement that was, then, in the IFAWs reach. The factor was compassion. The boycott was so successful, having attracted overwhelming, international public support, that the trustees of the IFAW became deeply concerned about the devastating economic effect on the fishermen, their families, and their communities.

Indeed, one of the trustees, Fred Beairisto, a resident of New Brunswick, a province dependent in part on the fishing industry, resigned on a matter of principle because of the boycott.

In 1985, the IFAW’s trustees, in order to minimize the harm to sealers and fishers, suspended the boycott before the seal hunt was ended, and before they had actually achieved a ban on the killing of all seals under one year of age. This was a fatal strategic mistake because at the time, as consequence of the IFAW’s seafood boycott, the Government of Canada, according to Deputy Prime Minister Allan MacEachen, was considering ending the commercial seal hunt. For more information, visit the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Archives.

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What will prevent the seal hunt from resuming once the Canadian Seafood Boycott ends?

The success of the Canadian Seafood Boycott. If – and when – the seal hunt ends, it will be as a result of the Canadian Seafood Boycott strategy. It will be because the strategy was successful in removing the economic and political benefits from the seal hunt.

If Canada’s politicians or the commercial fishing industry attempts to resume the seal hunt, they will be faced with another Canadian Seafood Boycott with the same devastating economic and political consequences.

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Won’t the Canadian Seafood Boycott punish Canada’s fishermen who don’t seal?

As previously mentioned, it would seem that most fishermen go sealing. A successful Canadian Seafood Boycott will have a devastating economic effect on the individuals and families who participate in the Canadian sealing and fishing industries.

The sealers and sealing industry are components of the larger commercial fishing industry. Without exception, the Canadian fishing industry, and its various trade unions and trade organizations, are strong proponents of sealing.

Pressure from the Canadian fishing industry as a whole, and not just the demands of the tiny minority who are sealers, was a major factor in the government’s decision to increase the TAC to almost one million seals over three years. The Canadian fishing industry, rejecting independent scientific consensus, holds the belief that seals and other marine mammals adversely affect fish stocks and impede the recovery of cod.

Geographically and politically, there is an almost perfect overlap between the sealing areas and the fishing areas. This overlap extends to the Pacific coast where fishers are also pressuring the federal government to implement a cull of seals and sea lions to protect fish farms.

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Frequently Asked Questions about the Boycott Canadian Seafood Campaign, reprinted with kind permission from Boycott Canadian Seafood

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Fishing vessels from Canada's East Coast on their way to slaughter seals.
Photo: DFO

Common Canadian seafood products:
Snow crab.
85% of snow crabs sold in the United States are from Canada. The seal hunt accounts for about 2% of the landed value of fisheries in Newfoundland - shellfish accounts for about 80%.

Lobster

Cod

flounder

haddock

herring

mackerel

mussels

oysters

perch

sardine

scallops

shrimp

sole

tuna

swordfish

trout

whitefish

yellow perch

Remember; products like these mentioned here don’t necessarily come from Canada. Other countries produce them too. Make sure to ask where they come from before boycotting them.