Hearn holds line on seal quota

[Animal 0]

Hearn holds line on seal quota
Last updated Mar 15 2006 12:31 PM NST
CBC News
The federal government will allow hunters will take 325,000 harp seals in Atlantic Canada, maintaining the same levels over the last three years.

Federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn announced the quota Wednesday while dismissing arguments from protesters who claim the hunt is inhumane and targets a threatened species.


Loyola Hearn

"The harp seal population is abundant and healthy," Hearn said in a statement.

"It stands at approximately 5.8 million animals, nearly triple the size of the herd in the 1970s," he said.

In 1993, the three-year total allowable catch was set at 975,000, or 325,000 per year. The actual TAC for 2005 was set at 320,000.

FROM MARCH 23, 2005: Harp seal catch pegged at 320,000
Hearn announced a five-year management plan for Atlantic seals, while reserving the right to make annual changes in catch limits.

The seal hunt is a magnet for international criticism from animal rights and welfare organizations.

Most recently, rock superstar Paul McCartney and his wife Heather Mills McCartney spoke out against the East Coast hunt while visiting pups off the Magdalen Islands.

FROM MARCH 4, 2006: McCartney used by groups, Williams says
Canada has banned hunting of harp and hooded seal pups – known as whitecoats and bluebacks, respectively – since 1987.

The major market for seal products is through their pelts, with prices substantially higher than in recent years, thanks to increased interest from fashion designers and in Asian markets.

DFO said the average price paid for a pelt in 2005 was $52, an 18 per cent increase over the previous year.

The majority of harp seals are taken at the Front, the name given to the area off the northeast coast of Newfoundland.

The season, though, traditionally opens in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans said the opening date for the Gulf hunt will be set over the next week.

The hunt on the Front usually opens in mid-April.

Meanwhile, Hearn announced that this year's hunt will include an allowance of 10,000 seals for "aboriginal initiatives," personal use and Arctic hunts.