"The arrogance of the Canadian Government is beyond
comprehension. TheAtlantic Seal Hunt Management Plan is based on
bad science, incorrectassumptions and flawed modelling and does not
take many vital issuesinto consideration. Hundreds of thousand of
seals will be killed overthe next few weeks with no clear
understanding of the ecologicalimpacts," said Mhairi Dunlop,
Greenpeace International.
The hunt opened at 6am (Atlantic Time) this morning in the Gulf
ofSt. Lawrence. A further hunt in Labrador, known as the Front,
willbegin on April 12. The total allowable catch (TAC) for this
year is319,500 harp seals, 95% of which will be under one year old.
Thisbrings the total to 975,000 seals that will have been killed
andofficially registered over the three-year management plan
produced bythe Government's Department of Fisheries and Oceans
(DFO).
The herd, currently numbering between 4 and 6 million according
toDFO figures, has recovered from its near collapse in the 1980's
whenover-hunting took the herd population to 1.3 million. This
year's huntwill be the largest hunt of any marine mammal in the
world. New censusdata on the current size of the herd has not been
released by the DFO.
Greenpeace produced a report, "The Canadian Seal Hunt: No
managementand no plan", released on March 9, detailing inaccuracies
in theMinistry's science used to justify the commercial hunt. The
DFO haveyet to respond to the evidence presented choosing instead
to attack themessenger rather than the message.
Findings in the report include:
- Failure to accurately reflect the actual number of seals
killed inthe hunt rendering the DFO quota figures scientifically
indefensible.The TAC for 2003-2005 does not take into account seals
that are "struckand lost":illegally hunted, killed and discarded
due to pelt damage andthose killed for their organs and therefore
not included in the peltcount.
- Population projections are based on assumptions that
environmentaland biological factors remain unchanged over the short
and long term, apremise that is highly questionable in light of the
escalating impactof climate change on the oceans and ice
conditions.
- Quotas are based on a seal census conducted at five-year
intervals.Because the hunt focuses on seal pups that do not reach
breeding agefor five years, impacts on the herd can take as many as
10 years toshow up and 15 years to establish any meaningful trends.
This rendersDFO conservation milestones and monitoring virtually
meaningless.
Greenpeace opposes the commercial
seal hunt but does not oppose the Indigenous hunts of Canada and
Greenland