Seal Hunt Suspended

Kristopher Hilbert / 11:04 AM / 04.04.08 / Pollution / 11

        The Canadian seal hunt has been suspended for one week after a two ships of seal hunters have been damaged and sunk. 4 hunters died after their boat capsized while being towed by a Canadian coast guard vessel. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and the Canadian coast guard are currently arguing over how events took place. Both side claiming that the other side was the aggressor.
        The SSCS is known for their direct action against whaling, long lining, shark fining, and seal clubbing. Traveling the world, this group of biologists, economists, and activists has been causing media attention to be brought to Japan’s whaling fleet and Taiwan’s shark fining industry. Now, the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans is planning on prosecuting the crew because they came too close too seal clubbers and rammed a coast guard vessel. This current media uproar and confusion of events has brought in the deaths of 4 seal hunters. Captain Paul Watson of the Farley Mowat has drawn even more attention by claiming that he feels the deaths of the hunters is not as tragic as the brutal slaughter of 275,000 seal pups (this year’s quota).
        The suspension might be broken but right now the future of both this season’s seal hunt and the Farley Mowat is currently unsure. One main purpose of the Farley Mowat is to gather evidence to bring to the EU in order to finally push a ban on seal products into regulation. The ban has been long-coming and has been extremely close to passing many times.
        The purpose of the seal hunt is to increase the number of cod to benefit Canadian fishermen’s catch. The idea is that if you eliminate the seal (one of the cod’s predators), the number of cod will increase. Though the cod do make up a portion of seals’ diet, most of their diet is larger fish that are also cod predators. Many ecologists believe that if the seal hunt was to be banned for even a few years, cod numbers would sky rocket.

        What can I say about this? I feel as though it is a prime example of human pollution. Seal clubbing, which was started right before WWII was a solution to decreasing cod populations. The misconception that this helped has lasted for over 65 years. With cod populations still decreasing you’d think some one would get it. This is also a prime example of governments protecting business interests instead of the interests of the ecology or biology of the land the government is supposed to protect. The SSCS is an awesome group that is trying to bring to light many of the problems humans seem to have with their habits.

http://www.seashepherd.org/news/media_080402_1.html
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/04/02/18490158.php
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/posted/archive/2008/04/04/163903.aspx