Thursday, March 23, 2006
Friday, March 24, 2006
Saturday, March 25, 2006
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Hunt will begin on thin ice

I arrived at the Humane Society of the United States’ (HSUS) campaign office in Charlotte-town. Writers, campaigners and videographers were busy preparing for their trip to document the hunt while others were busy fielding media inquiries and tackling the latest logistical chal-lenge.

Some members of the HSUS crew have already been out over the Gulf of St. Lawrence to sur-vey the ice conditions and locate the seals. They report that there is very little ice and very few seals. It could be that the pups have already drowned because of the lack of ice. If this be the case, climate change is a new ecological threat for Canada’s seal populations and may kill more seals than the hunters this year.

Earlier this year, mild weather and a lack of pack ice forced several grey seals to birth on land, making them more vulnerable to human activity and predators. A storm surge pushed hun-dreds of grey seal pups out to sea. Local residents watched in horror as adults seals tried to carry their pups back to shore only to watch the storm bring the pups back out to the water. Hundreds of grey seal pups that did not yet know how to swim subsequently drowned. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) increased this year’s quota for grey seals despite their estimation that 75 % of the pups died due to the lack of ice and severe storms.

The irresponsible decision to increase this year’s kill quotas despite international opposition to the hunt and the threat now posed by climate change shows us that the Department of Fisher-ies and Oceans has not learned a thing from its past mistakes. The same department that mismanaged the commercial fisheries seems intent on exterminating seals next.

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Friday, March 24, 2006

Sealing boats leave port

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has announced that the hunt in the Gulf of St. Law-rence will start at 6 am Saturday morning. Approximately 40 sealing boats have already left port and are headed towards the seals to stake their positions. So this means, we must stake out ours.

For those that want to observe the hunt, the first step is to apply for an observers permit. It costs sealers only $5 for a license to kill seals but observers must pay $25 for a permit to watch them. I was interviewed by the regional DFO office today in order to qualify for observer status. They read me my rights and lack thereof under the Marine Mammal Regulations. I could not interfere with the hunt by scaring a seal or coming within 10 m of a sealer or a seal. According to people who have witnessed the hunt before, you must also maintain a 10 m dis-tance when being chased by a sealer, which is not easy to do while carrying camera equipment and manoeuvering around thin areas of ice.

In a few hours we will be leaving for Sydney, Nova Scotia. Environment Canada’s latest bulle-tin reports light to moderate ice conditions (1 tenth of first year ice) near the Magdalen Is-lands, where the hunt typically occurs. There is likely to be larger and thicker ice pans closer to St. Paul’s Island 14 miles off the northern tip of Nova Scotia. Where there is ice, there will likely be more seals and subsequently more hunters. So we must relocate our crew and be ready for them.

The quota for the Gulf hunt is 91,000 seals but judging by how few seals have been spotted from observers in helicopters thus far, it is doubtful that the hunters will reach their quota. If they do, it is hard to imagine what the seal nursery will look like and whether any living seals will remain in the Gulf when the large sealing ships return home.

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Saturday, March 25, 2006

First day of the hunt

Canada’s commercial seal hunt began in the Gulf of St. Lawrence at daybreak today but not without several witnesses. When the owner of the Osprey Wharf in North Sydney tried to stop my interview with CBC National News this morning, it was a clear indication that our campaign is influential. The Canadian government has its own stories to tell about this hunt but the video footage and photographs hunt observers bring back every year tell a different one. The video footage needs no introduction, the photos need no captions – this hunt is unnecessary, waste-ful and unacceptably cruel.

I accompanied the Humane Society of the United States who documented this cruel slaughter by boat, zodiacs and helicopters. At first all that could be seen were scattered blocks of ice. No seals could be seen for miles.

Then amidst the roiling sea, approximately, 20 sealing boats were spotted close to St. Paul’s Island in the Cabot Strait. Sighted easily were the boats that left a trail of blood behind them as they dragged butchered seal pups. Increasingly more of the ice blocks that drifted under-neath the helicopter were stained with blood, some with skinned carcasses, evidence that the slaughter was well underway.

Although sealers in this region of the hunt prefer to use clubs and hakapiks as they are cheaper and cause less pelt damage, rifles are this year’s killing implement of choice. We watched as sealers tried to kill moving seals on small drifting ice blocks.

Unlike last year, when hunters killed thousands of seal pups on large ice pans in just a few days, this year hunters will have to spend more time searching for the few seal pups that sur-vived the wrath of climate change.

Scientists such as Duke University’s Ari Friedlaender say ice cover is declining in critical areas that seals depend on to give birth. Friedlaender suspects this year’s pup mortality will be high. After covering a vast area of the Gulf and seeing so few seals, it is becoming increasingly likely many of the pups have already drowned.

The pups that managed to survive the melting ice conditions are currently under siege by hunters. Lying on a small ice block, the pups have nowhere to escape but in the water which isn’t the best refuge for the many that have yet to learn how to swim. The accumulative effect of a large commercial hunt and declining ice could be detrimental to Canada’s seal herds. But instead of stopping the hunt until research on the implications of climate change is conducted, Harper’s government has decided to increase the allowable kill rationalizing that they will deal with the mystery of disappearing ice next year.

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Sunday, March 26, 2006

Sealers ram HSUS zodiac, damaging propeller

Sealers rammed into an HSUS zodiac this morning, angry that activists and media are showing images of Canada's cruel seal slaughter to the world. The small inflatable boat carrying HSUS staff and one journalist, was puntured on one side and had a broken propeller. Witnesses say the zodiac was maintaining a safe distance documenting the seal hunt in accordance with Can-ada's Marine Mammal Regulations. Fortunately nobody onboard was physically injured during the attack although likely shaken up by the incident.

The DFO is reporting that 3100 pelts were acquired during the first day of the hunt. This does not account for the many seal pups that likely drowned while trying to escape from the hunters on tiny blocks of ice. Scientists believe many pups likely drowned even before the sealing boats arrived because there was little ice to support their first weeks on earth. According to the CBC, the DFO says there are 47 sealing boats participating in this first phase of the hunt in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Some sealers have reported to media that they are parking their boats and may even return home early as they are not able to acquire enough pelts to make the work worthwhile. One veteran sealer reports only killing 60 seals on the opening day of the hunt, far lower than previous years. Other sealers plan on heading north to the Strait of Belle Isle hoping to have better luck finding a large congregation of seals there.

Many of the seal pups found on the Gulf were born between 2-3 weeks ago and had yet to fully molt their fluffy fur coats. The sealing industry calls pups at this stage, "ragged jackets". Seal pups that have reached what is called the "beater" stage have better market quality pelts.

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Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Arresting the innocent rather than the criminals

When a sealing boat rammed into an HSUS zodiac last Sunday in the cold icy waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the RCMP arrested the victims of the attack instead of the driver of the sealing boat who could have killed them. Shocking this may be to some, similar situations have happened before. Those who enforce Canada's seal hunt regulatons turn a blind eye to evidence of seals being skinned alive and tortured but will manufacture violations in an effort to get rid of those who have legal authority to document the hunt for the world to see. The truth is, Canada's Marine Mammal Regulations protect the sealing industry from being threat-ened not the seals (as the name of the regs may lead you to believe) and certainly not the protestors.

According to HSUS, hours after their zodiac was rammed on the second day of the hunt, a sealing boat carrying RCMP and DFO officers cut in front of their two inflatable, small boats, forcing them to cut in front of a sealing vessel to get out of harm's way. The six activists and a Reuters cameraman onboard were arrested for potential violation of regulations, requiring ob-servers to maintain at least 10 metres from sealers engaged in a sealing activity. Even if the sealers chase permitted observers (by boat or on foot), the activists can be charged for not moving out of the way quickly enough. Although they were eventually released, the DFO took away all of their observer permits and confiscated video footage. They were likely trying to obtain the footage, which shows the sealing boat charging the HSUS zodiac. Fortunately, that footage was safely delivered via helicopter to the campaign team in North Sydney, Nova Scotia and aired on CBC Television later that same day.

While I know our government goes to great lengths to shut out public scrutiny of the commer-cial seal slaughter, I am shocked and disturbed that they would do this at the risk of endanger-ing human lives. They fortunately have not been very successful at keeping this news from traveling far and wide. Though it happens far away from public view, the horrific images and eye witness reports of the east coast seal hunt have already been aired around the world and it is only the beginning

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Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Killing defenseless animals is not hunting, it’s criminal

I am proud to be a Canadian because of our country’s progressive stance on a number of im-portant issues but when it comes to the way we treat animals and the environment our coun-try is in the dark ages. For instance, Canada’s legislation to protect animals from wanton cru-elty is more than 100 years old. Numerous bills to amend the archaic legislation have been passed only to die on the order paper because the government can’t deal with the unwar-ranted fears from industries that make their money off animal exploitation.

Despite being weak, Canada’s marine mammal regulations, which serve to protect the industry over the mammals, are routinely violated by sealers. The regulations require each sealer to perform the Blink Reflex Test to ensure each seal is rendered unconscious before skinning. Though the test is quick, simple and easy to perform, observers of the seal hunt rarely see it performed. Shockingly, an independent panel of veterinarians examined the death of several seals in 2001 and reported that up to 42% of seal carcasses they examined did not show enough evidence of cranial injury to even guarantee unconsciousness at the time they were skinned. These veterinarians concluded that the seal hunt is unacceptably inhumane.

In response to cruelty concerns, the DFO appointed their own panel of veterinarians in 2002, who suggested that 98% of the seals hunted every year are killed in “an acceptably humane manner”. Firstly, sealers are likely to abide by regulations when observed by government en-forcement officers or appointed veterinarians. Secondly, if the DFO really believes that just 2% the seals were killed inhumanely in 2002, this still means that 5,500 seals (out of a quota of 275,000 harp seals) endured an enormous amount of cruel treatment and were likely skinned alive right in front of government officials.

Yesterday I discussed Canada’s seal hunt with John Banks, who hosts a New Zealand radio show. Mr. Banks was the former mayor of Auckland and a cabinet minister for 25 years, but he raised his profile as an advocate for animal welfare when he pulled his Ministry car to the side of the road to rescue a goat that was tied up in hot weather. When I spoke about the seal “hunt”, Mr. Banks immediately corrected my language, making the point that Canadian fisher-men were not “hunting” seals; they were ruthlessly slaughtering them. To him, this was be-yond appalling; it was criminal. The same point was made by Geoff Rytell in his letter to the editor of the Globe and Mail yesterday – “Hunting, with the exception of quail in Texas, calls for prey that possess at least the potential of escaping or outwitting its predators. Seals are defenceless. Killed they certainly are. Hunted they certainly are not.”

In deed, the seal slaughter that occurs every spring on far away ice floes off Canada’s Eastern coast is criminal…even according to our country's deplorably weak welfare regulations.

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Melissa Tkachyk's journal, reprinted with kind permission from WSPA Canada

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