Bridget Curran 2007

Tuesday, 27 March 2007
Wednesday, 28 March 2007
Thursday, 29 March 2007
Friday, 30 March 2007
Saturday, 31 March 2007
Sunday, April 1 2007
Monday, April 2, 2007
Tuesday, April 3 2007
Wednesday, April 4 2007
Thursday, April 5 2007
Friday, April 6 2007
Saturday, April 7 2007
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Monday, April 9 2007
Tuesday, April 10 2007

Tuesday, 27 March 2007 - 5:00 p.m.

I am here in Newfoundland to bear witness to the horrific slaughter the government euphemistically refers to as "harvesting a natural resource".

I have tried to prepare myself for the ordeal I know I will face, but honestly I do not think one can ever be prepared for the wanton cruelty that occurs annually on the east coast of Canada.

I feel truly privileged to be in the company of such dedicated and compassionate people, all committed to ending this horrific slaughter. I cannot even begin to express the admiration I feel for everyone who defends the rights and welfare of animals, and am truly fortunate to know so many people who are willing to work so hard to protect animals' interests. I have taken with me the well wishes of many friends, and receive encouragement daily from wonderful people, both here, back at home in Halifax and throughout the Atlantic Region.

I know without a doubt that this will be the hardest thing I have ever done - and likely ever will do - in my life. But it must be done. I am firmly committed to stay here until I have accomplished what I came here to do - to witness the inhumane slaughter of these helpless seal pups and to carry my eyewitness testimony home to share with those who still rely upon government and sealing industry propaganda for information on the commercial seal hunt.

I am here to help end this insanity.

Wednesday, 28 March 2007 - 9:00 a.m.

How ironic that Canada's Ambassador for Fisheries Conservation Loyola Sullivan is in Europe to emphasize the sustainability of the Canadian seal hunt while the Canadian government authorizes the slaughter of the seal pups who have thus far survived the ravages of climate change.

It is estimated that approximately 250,000 seal pups drowned in the Southern Gulf when nursery ice, upon which they are dependent to survive, broke up and was carried out in rough waters to the ocean last week. On recent fly-bys conducted by DFO and animal protection groups, a single seal was seen clinging precariously to a small piece of ice, where there should have been hundreds of thousands of pups lying on expanses of nursery ice. It is stated that the devastation this year far surpasses the devastation of 2002 when it was estimated that 75% of seal pups drowned. DFO itself estimates the infant mortality rate in the Southern Gulf this year is 90 – 100 percent.

DFO spokesperson Phil Jenkins announced to media that these developments had caused DFO concern and a cancellation of the Southern Gulf portion of the seal hunt was being contemplated. One reason stated by Jenkins was a desire to “do the right thing by the herd” and a resolve to ensure the herd “is there for generations to come as abundant as it has been in the past”. He stated, however, that the Northern Gulf and Front phases of the seal hunt would proceed. Equally disturbing, DFO official Roger Simon stated that there may be some hunting on drifting ice floes in the Southern Gulf. The very few survivors who by some miracle are still clinging to life on rapidly shrinking ice pans will be picked off by sealers.

Common sense dictates that if the majority of seal pups in the Southern Gulf have drowned and if DFO is truly committed to maintaining a healthy seal population to ensure a so-called sustainable “hunt”, no seals should be killed whatsoever this year.

The Oxford Dictionary defines “sustainable” as “avoiding depletion of a natural resource”. The Meriam-Webster dictionary offers the definition of “being a method or using a resource so that the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged”.

By the end of the 1970s the seal herd was severely depleted due to overhunting. History is repeating itself. Last year, in the face of climate change resulting in a sharp rise in mortality of seal pups and subsequent appeals to cancel the seal hunt or lower the quota, the Minister for Fisheries and Oceans raised the quota to one of the highest to date and allowed the slaughter to continue. By the end of last year's slaughter, 354,000 seal pups had been bludgeoned or shot to death - 19,000 over the quota or “allowable catch”. Each year, sealers go consistently over-quota, killing more seals than is allowed under DFO's so-called “Management Plan”. Government tallies of total seals killed take into account only those pelts that make it to shore. Not taken into account are the thousands of seals mortally wounded and escaping to die of their wounds (“struck and lost”) and those discarded due to damaged pelts.

Consecutive years of climate change are taking their toll on the seal herd population, with infant mortality rates spiking alarmingly. DFO's own scientists warn that if current kill levels are maintained, the seal population is in trouble. To date DFO has ignored warning signs from both Mother Nature and its own scientists.

Loyola Sullivan's title should be changed to Ambassador of Fisheries Decimation. DFO's so-called “Management Plan” has not even a nodding acquaintance with conservation principles. It is not a plan for conservation. It is a plan for extermination.

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Thursday, 29 March 2007 - 9:00 p.m.

Today the Canadian government condemned to death 270,000 seal pups. Not only will it be "business as usual" for the Northern Gulf and Front portions of the commercial seal hunt, but the ravaged Southern Gulf will also be open for sealers to bludgeon or shoot every last remaining seal pup surviving the dire nursery ice conditions.

In a press conference with media, a DFO spokesman stated that the high mortality rate in the Gulf was "significant" but was quick to add that the Southern Gulf was only a small part of the seal hunt. This is a clear indication that their concern in the mortality rate is not the welfare and survival of the seal population, but rather the "slim pickings" it represented for sealers. This is yet another example of how these beautiful creatures are nothing but a "natural resource" to be "harvested", and not the sentient beings they truly are.

I am deeply ashamed today to be Canadian, to know that my government would make such a reckless and irresponsible decision in the face of popular opinion and science, and go to such lengths as to defend the indefensible to the world, claiming to represent me as a Canadian citizen.

But it also strenghtens my resolve to bear witness to the slaughter this year and to work toward bringing an end to the Canadian commercial seal hunt.

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Friday, 30 March 2007 - 9:00 p.m.

We now have a start date for the largest slaughter of marine wildlife in the world. As they say in the Red Rose Tea commercial 'Only in Canada, eh? Pity'. Yes, it is a pity that we have such an incredibly stubborn and short-sighted government that refuses to learn from past mistakes.

Although I am not surprised that DFO would make the irresponsible and callous decision to allow the slaughter to proceed, I am truly shocked and saddened that the seals must pay the price for human greed and ineptitude.

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Saturday, 31 March 2007 - 9:00 p.m.

I had an absolutely lovely message left on my mobile phone by a dear friend and her family, all offering support and love, and it was a wonderful reminder of the people I am representing while I am here. I am not only here as an individual, but as a representative of everyone in Atlantic Canada who opposes this cruel and unsustainable slaughter of marine mammals.

The Atlantic Canadian Anti-Sealing Coalition is a collection of caring and compassionate individuals, businesses and organizations across the region of Atlantic Canada, and I am proud to represent each and every one of them in my mission here to bear witness to the annual slaughter of baby seals that occurs on the east coast of Canada each year.

Whilst it breaks my heart to know that in just a few days, hundreds of thousands of baby seals will be cruelly slaughtered, it is a comfort to know that so many people fight on for those seal pups and support me in my difficult task of witnessing the slaughter.

I also take comfort in the fact that this industry is collapsing. World markets are closing. International outrage grows daily. Even people in the very region in which the seal hunt is conducted are raising their voice in condemnation and challenging government's claims that the majority of Canadians support such a travesty. The majority of Canadians do not support the commercial seal hunt. The government of Canada can claim this as much as they like - nobody believes their lies.

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Sunday, 1 April 2007 - 11:30 p.m.

It's surreal to be here. There is such stunning beauty in this place, but that beauty is soiled by the stark horror of what will happen here in just a few short days.

My people came from here. My grandmother grew up on the island of Iona, off the coast of Newfoundland. She left shortly before the island was resettled and travelled to Nova Scotia, where she lived for the remainder of her life. Somewhere in this province I have family that I have never met.

My people were fishermen and for all I know they may have been sealers. My grandmother was pro-seal hunt and I remember an argument we had after I had written an anti-sealing poem when I was very young. She angrily told me that I had no right to condemn a practice that had been going on for generations which was economically necessary for men who must provide for their families. I recall being confused and hurt by her anger, as I was condemning the commercial seal hunt that focused at that time on the whitecoat for their pelt, whilst it seemed she was referring to a small-scale personal seal hunt, perhaps something in which her father and/or grandfather had participated. Surely - I thought - she cannot be defending the cruel slaughter and skinning alive of baby seals just a few days old, while their mothers looked on helplessly? I still do not know, as we never spoke of the issue again.

Today the same arguments resonate. We're still being told that the commercial seal hunt is economically necessary. We're still being told that the commercial seal hunt is tradition...culture...heritage. We're still being told that the commercial seal hunt is humane and sustainable. Today, after countless hours of research and intense involvement in the issue over the past year, my response is the same - the commercial seal hunt is a cruel, unsustainable and completely unnecessary travesty. There are viable alternatives to killing seals, and the government must be pressured to consider and implement those alternatives.

I can only hope that somewhere in this province my relatives feel the same as I do.

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Monday, April 2, 2007 - 6:30 a.m.

Today in the Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence the very few seal pups surviving the ravages of climate change will be slaughtered. Despite mortality rates the government itself estimates at 90% - 100%, the government has given its permission for sealers from Atlantic Canada to bludgeon or shoot all of the surviving pups who by some miracle are still clinging precariously to rapidly shrinking ice pans.

These pups will die in secret, alone, hidden from compassionate eyes, with no one bearing witness to their cruel and unnecessary death. DFO has refused to issue observer permits to anyone in the Southern Gulf. It is illegal to watch these men killing and skinning these defenceless baby seals for their fur and discarding their bloody carcasses on the ice or in the water. Anyone who gets close enough to witness this carnage will be arrested and charged. It's ludicrous that the unspeakable acts committed against the seals is permitted and protected under the law but the simple act of witnessing such acts is illegal and anyone doing so is subject to prosecution.

Compassionate eyes will not see them die, but compassionate hearts will mourn for them, and condemn a government that allows such absolute barbarity to continue despite the wishes of the majority of Canadians for this carnage to stop.

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Tuesday, April 3, 2007 - 11:14 p.m.

We received our permits today but it is obvious the government is going to make this as difficult as possible for us to observe and document the seal slaughter in the northern Gulf, which opens tomorrow. We're only allowed to use two helicopters which is going to make it difficult. But the team has been working very hard to meet the challenges and we are all firmly resolved to document this slaughter and bring the images and experiences to the world as a reminder of why nations should ban all seal products.

It is horrific to think that in just a few short days over 270,000 baby seals will be bludgeoned or shot to death. That is the reality of the commercial seal hunt - it is an industrialized, large-scale slaughter of infant marine mammals who are unable to escape or defend themselves. I am here as part of the effort to shut this obscene industry down. We will win.

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Wednesday, April 4, 2007 - 11:30 p.m.

We travelled by helicopter over the northern Gulf for several hours on the opening day of the northern Gulf of Saint Lawrence, but we saw no seals and no so-called "hunting".

Where there should be thousands of seal pups, we saw only a handful - few and far between. Where are all of the seals? Did they suffer the same fate as the pups born in the southern Gulf? There had been seals in that area previously but there were very few to be seen now.

We'll return tomorrow to keep looking.

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Thursday, April 5, 2007 - 11:45 p.m.

We flew over the northern Gulf of St. Lawrence again this morning and it seemed for awhile that it would be a repeat of yesterday with no seals in sight.

Suddenly I saw a seal, and another and another. Spread out on the ice pans, younger seals lazed near the edge of the ice while older seals slipped into the water for a swim.

We had found the seals. And we had found the sealing boats. Unfortunately, the sealing boats had also found the seals.

What I saw today broke my heart. I thought I was prepared for this. I was wrong.

What were pristine ice pans yesterday are now stained red with the blood of thousands of baby seals bludgeoned or shot to death for their fur. Carcasses now litter the ice pans and the surrounding waters - carcasses discarded and left to rot despite government and sealing industry's claims of "full utilization".

What motivates someone to such depths of brutality? These seals do not care if the seal hunt is "sustainable", nor do they care if there is "full utilization of the animal". These seals know fear and pain and the will to survive; to live. What right have we as so-called civilized human beings to cause them such fear and pain, and to deprive them of their life?

Government's and sealers' attempts at justification on the grounds that the seal hunt is part of the cultural fabric of this region and is a valued tradition turn my stomach. It is beyond me how anyone can cling to a tradition that causes so much agony to animals and leaves the stench of blood and gore on the hands of all Canadians?

There are alternatives to killing seals. Why does nobody want to consider those alternatives?

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Friday, April 6, 2007 - 4:00 p.m.

Today brought allegations from sealers and DFO that a pilot hired by HSUS was scaring seals into the water to prevent them from being killed by sealers. Well duh if we scare seals into the water before they're able to swim, they will drown. What exactly does that accomplish? Nothing. The pilot has had his license revoked for at least one day while an investigation is carried out.

This is a common tactic to prevent observers from documenting the slaughter and is yet one more sickening example of how strenuously the government protects the commercial seal hunt. DFO officials are not there to monitor and regulate the seal hunt or to ensure the sealers are adhering to the Marine Mammal Regulations - DFO officials are there to keep an eye on the observers and to trump up reasons to revoke their permits, thereby ensuring that the slaughter will continue unwatched and undocumented.

And no wonder. Observers are watching sealers violate Marine Mammal Regulations whilst DFO turns a blind eye to their actions. Sealers have been seen - and captured on videotape - smashing seal pups' faces in, leaving them to suffer on the ice whilst they move on to smash the next one. They are hooking conscious seals through the head and neck, dragging and hoisting them onto boats where they slice them open, rip their skin off and toss their bloody carcass back onto the ice. It does not seem to matter to these sealers - these so-called "brave hunters" - whether these pups are alive or dead, conscious or unconscious when they slice them open and rip their pelt off. To them, these seals are not sentient beings. They are merely a "natural resource to be harvested" - to be exploited for profit. The quicker they can skin them and toss them aside, the better. In the mad rush to accumulate as many skins as possible, who can bother taking the time to ensure the animals do not suffer. From what I have seen, no sealers are taking that time. As a consequence, seal pups are suffering.

How can anyone in their right mind condone such behaviour? How can anyone with even a minute amount of compassion in their heart defend this vile butchery?

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Saturday, April 7 , 2007 - 4:00 p.m.

I was reading an article in a paper today wherein someone said that animal rights activists had infiltrated the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and that DFO had caved in to AR groups. These bitter statements were brought about by DFO's lowering of this year's quota of "Total Allowable Catch" or "Total Seals That Can Be Butchered",

If the situation weren't so grim, I would have laughed. The person writing that article seemed to forget two important points. This year's quota was lowered from one of the highest quotas in the history of the commercial seal hunt. Considering how high Loyola Hearn jacked up the quota last year, this year's quota can barely be considered a reduction. It's a bit like jacking up the price of a product so you can slash a few dollars off and call it a sale.

The other point is that this year DFO estimated that over 90% of this year's pups in the southern Gulf drowned when their nursery ice, upon which they depend until they are old enough to swim, melted. It was estimated that over 250,000 seal pups perished in the cold water of the southern Gulf. Taking this into consideration, the seal hunt should have been cancelled outright. Instead, the government authorized the slaughter of at least 270,000 more seals. A reduction of 65,000 is nothing compared to the 250,000 already dead and the 270,000 condemned to death by DFO. I guess some people just can't do the math.

And then of course, there is the obvious. If an AR activist had infiltrated and influenced DFO, or DFO had caved in to AR groups' demands, as the author of that letter claimed, the commercial seal hunt would have been cancelled altogether. Duh.

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Sunday, April 8 , 2007 - 4:00 p.m.

Gale force winds kept us grounded again today. So many factors are out of our control - it's frustrating. I hope the weather improves tomorrow and I can get back up into the air to document this cruel slaughter.

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Monday, April 9 , 2007 - 10:25 p.m.

Not much improvement on the weather today. Grounded for another day.

I will have to leave this place soon and return to Halifax, back to my ordinary life. If life can ever be ordinary again after what I have seen.

I hate to leave while these poor baby seals are being butchered, but by going home I am not forgetting about them or their gruesome fate. Being here was only the first part - to observe; to witness. The second part will begin the second I arrive home - to start spreading the word of what I have witnessed, to educate people as to the facts of the commercial seal hunt and to urge the public to take a stand and do whatever is in their power to bring this atrocity to an end.

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Tuesday, April 10, 2007 - 7:47 p.m.

The weather was fine today so at long last I was able to get airborne and observe once again. To say that what I saw horrified me would be a gross understatement.

Sealers were shooting seal pups, most of them almost completely white, and leaving them to flail about helplessly in agony on the ice for minutes at a time as the boats travelled to and maneuvered alongside the ice pan. At times the sealers leaned over the edge of the boat and hooked a still moving pup with the gaff, hauling her through the icy water up over the side of the boat where they would either bludgeon her with the gaff or simply throw her onto the pile of seals brought aboard earlier. At no point did I see a sealer check to ensure the pup was dead. There was no blinking reflex check or palpation of the skull. Other times the sealers jumped out onto the ice and hooked the still conscious pup through the head and, dragging her across the ice and hauling her onto the boat, either bludgeoned her or tossed her on the pile of bloodied carcasses on the deck. Again, at no point did I see the sealers do the eye reflex test or palpate the skull to ensure the pup was dead or incapable of regaining consciousness. Pups were piled on top of each other to slowly die on board the boat, or to be skinned - whichever came first.

One poor seal pup’s bowels had let go at the moment of impact and there was a trail of blood and feces trailing behind her as she tried to crawl to what, in her panicked state, she probably thought was safety. I saw seals writhing on the ice, trying to crawl away, lifting their head high into the air and crying out. Thankfully I could not hear their cries of pain and fear. The sight was bad enough. I saw mortally wounded seals slip off the ice whilst inept sealers attempted to stab their gaffs into them. These seals would drown and become simply a statistic - another “struck and lost”. Government claims that the percentage of struck and lost amounts to only 5% of total seals killed whilst observers insist that the percentage is closer to 50%. Honestly, however, the exact percentage is irrelevant. When you’re watching a seal bleeding from bullet wounds, writhing in agony, being struck repeatedly in the neck by gaffs being thrown out wildly by inept sealers in choppy waters, and when you see that seal suddenly slip off the ice and beneath the surface of the frigid water below, that one seal is one too many.

When the Canadian government states that 90% of seals killed in the commercial seal hunt are shot and not clubbed, they make such a statement in an attempt to detract from the horrific spectacle of sealers bludgeoning helpless pups with hakapiks. Shooting, they claim, is more humane and looks much more palatable. Today I witnessed what seals experience when they are shot, and it was neither humane nor palatable.

The sealers I watched today are from Newfoundland. People from Newfoundland have told me in the past that their sealers are not inhumane like the Magdalen Islands sealers, and that they do not use clubs, but rather only use guns. If these people could see what I witnessed today, surely they would not be so quick to boast that their sealers "only shoot" seals.

I will never forget the abject cruelty I witnessed today. There was absolutely no mistaking the fact that these pups were still alive, conscious and suffering on the ice when they were stabbed through the head with the gaff, dragged or hoisted onboard and thrown onto the pile of bloody dead and dying seal pups. These sealers - these so-called "hunters" - have no excuse. Grown men brutalizing pups just a few weeks old...it sickens me. How can it not sicken them to do such things?

Another important question is: where was DFO? Where were the DFO officials who should be witnessing and documenting the multitude of violations of the Marine Mammal Regulations that I witnessed? They were nowhere to be found. There were at least 20 sealing vessels out there butchering seal pups and not a single DFO or Coast Guard vessel was seen. Yet DFO continues to insist that this slaughter is "closely monitored and tightly regulated". This is just one of the disgusting lies the Canadian government repeats in an attempt to keep this sickening industry alive. It's time the Canadian government stopped its lies and shut down this bloodbath.

Everything witnessed on this day by myself and others was captured on videotape and will be shared with the world. DFO and sealers tried hard this year again to prevent us from witnessing and documenting the slaughter, but those attempts failed and as a consequence we have ample evidence of government lies and industry propaganda.

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Bridget Curran 's journal, reprinted with kind permission from the Atlantic Anti-Sealing Coalition

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