Seal Slaughter: Is the mass killing of sea mammels 'sustainable' ecologically and economically?

[Omaha Steve]

http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?article_class=&no=350178&rel_no=1


Canada's Annual Seal Slaughter
Is the mass killing of sea mammels 'sustainable' ecologically and economically?

Published 2007-03-14 06:40 (KST)
Spring is approaching in the northern latitudes and one annual event which Canadians pay little attention to domestically but which gets lots of international media coverage is about to get underway: the yearly mass slaughter of seals.

This grotesque spectacle begins in an almost ritual fashion at the end of March. "Hunters" club the seal pups to death, then strip there pelts off with mundane efficiency. This is not nearly as deplorable, however, as the near absolute absence of a national public debate over the morality of the hunt. The silence across the land is deafening.

The issue appears too hot to address in the people's House of Commons, and few if any politicians wish to take a public position on it. As if swept under the ice flows for far too long, the images of wholesale gore, splattered blood on ice banks, have evoked disgust and outrage throughout the civilized world.

The barbaric primitiveness of the hunt-slaughter, or "cull," contrasts jarringly with the "Mr. nice guy" image Canada wishes to project abroad. Not long ago I attended the D.C environmental film festival and after a screening of a documentary at the Canadian embassy in the U.S capital a high ranking diplomat invited me to chat with him over coffee. Beforehand, he graciously gave me a tour of the impressive building. I noticed the images of seals on paintings and Inuit sculptures and carvings which adorned the walls. This near reverence of these sea mammals and their beauty depicted so stunningly in art form, seemed in sharp contrast and in total contradiction to the reality of the seal slaughter taking place around the same time off the coast of Newfoundland.

Right now the P.R machinery is working overtime to deflect and stifle the worldwide wave of criticism against the seal hunt. Canadian diplomats and officials in Ottawa are busy sparring the EU parliament, which has denounced the hunt recently.

Aside from the usual verbal invective exchanges between the activists worldwide and the minister of fisheries and oceans in Ottawa, a massive campaign to justify the hunt is underway. Officials argue the seal hunt is conducted in a "humane" manner and that it's crucial to the well-being of communities whose welfare depends on the seal's hide.

Yet how can Canada continue to preach and peddle it green image internationally and still carry out the mass slaughter of seals? Scientists of dubious credentials are hired by the government bureaucrats to issue studies justifying the annual butchery. Just what impact the sudden diminishment of the seal population over several weeks has on the overall ecosystem and its fauna is simply unknown.

One does not need to be expert in environmental studies to see that there is an impact and not only on the seal population but upon other species such as their predators, the endangered Polar bears. Furthermore, those who advocate the seal hunt have yet to produce a comprehensive report about the impact of global warming on the seal population as a whole in addition to that of the hunt. Perhaps Ottawa will come up with such a study soon?

Those opposed to the seal hunt, such as David Lavigne, a scientific adviser to the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) in Ottawa says, "Prudence would say you reduce the number of animals killed to allow these animals to have some chance in the face of global warming, which is contributing to high levels of pup mortality." But no, these appeals fall on deaf ears and despite the perils of warming sea temperatures on the overall seal population the hunt goes on.

FULL article at link.

[flvegan]

1. Good article. I loved "'hunters'"

as if that's what they actually were.

Thanks for posting this.

[sam sarrha]

2. their predators have been killed off and they are real out of control nuisance in places.. they are

decimating the salmon runs in puget sound washington and several other fish migrations.. a single seal nearly make the steal head extinct that migrated thru the locks near Seattle.. it just hung our int the locks and killed all the steal head without eating them.. i thing the entire run was reduced to a couple hundred fish after a few years of one obese seal destroying them..

[GoddessOfGuinness]

3. Email the Prime Minister to end this hunt...

http://takeaction.oceana.org/dia/organizationsORG/oceana/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=7027&utm_source=20070319_SealHunt&utm_medium=email

[MasonJar]

4. This is one of the most despicable acts man can initiate against

perfectly innocent creatures of love and beauty. It is not man's job to do nature's bidding. The specious reasoning that hunters are necessary to keep other animals from multiplying is absurd. If we were not taking over every available space on our small planet, the other creatures, large and small, could continue to make their way naturally.