Le ministre des pêches est inquiet....

[Animal 0]

SEAFOOD BOYCOTT WORRIES FISHERIES MINISTER

HALIFAX -

The province's fisheries minister, Chris d'Entremont, is worried that a U.S.
campaign urging a boycott of Canadian seafood will hurt Nova Scotia.

The U.S. Humane Society, an animal-rights group, has called on restaurants
and other businesses to stop importing seafood from Canada as a way to
protest the East Coast seal hunt.

About $3 billion worth of Canadian seafood products are exported to the U.S.
every year.

So far at least one major distributor, DownEast Seafood, has agreed to halt
the importing of Canadian fish.

D'Entremont said a boycott causes "some concern," so Nova Scotia will step
up its public relations campaign in the U.S. He's urging Ottawa and the
other Atlantic provinces to do the same.

"We're really going to have to mount up more of a campaign to try to dispell
some of the myths that are maybe pushing this one along," d'Entremont said.

His counterpart in Newfoundland and Labrador, Fisheries Minister Trevor
Taylor, said it's still too early to determine what kind of effect a boycott
would have on the industry.

But Taylor accuses the animal-rights group of trying to ruin the livelihoods
of fishermen across the region, saying sealing may only bring in one-quarter
of a fisherman's $40,000-a-year income.

"It's pretty difficult for a guy who's working on a deck of a boat...to
watch a group of people, which he or she knows that by Newfoundland
standards is rich, landing in front of them on a helicopter and telling them
what [they're] doing is wrong," he said.

Federal fisheries officials say the population of seals is estimated at
about five million. They also say that 98 per cent of the time, the seals
are killed properly.

Activists claim the hunt is needlessly cruel and object to the way hunters
club the seals.

FROM APRIL 4, 2005: U.S. Humane Society calls for Canadian seafood boycott
FROM CBC ARCHIVES: The Atlantic Seal Hunt