Everything about Seal Hunting totally explained
» Sealing redirects here; for other uses, see sealing (disambiguation).
Seal hunting, or
sealing, is the personal or commercial hunting of
seals for their
pelts,
blubber, and meat; as well as to ensure the population doesn't reach levels that would threaten other species. The hunt is practiced in five countries:
Canada, where most of the world's seal hunting takes place, as well as
Greenland,
Namibia,
Norway, and
Russia. Seal hunting is an important source of income and food in small coastal communities where other opportunities are limited.
Seal populations were severely depleted when commercial sealing became a major industry, with the world harp seal population declining to 1.5 million. As a result of population concerns hunting is now controlled by quotas based on recommendations from the
International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), and in 2007, the
Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) set the "total allowable catch" (TAC) of harp seals at 270,000 per year. This number is, by comparison, smaller than the average number of animals killed for pelts on European fur farms every week. Harp seals have never been considered endangered and the Marine Animal Response Society, per March 2007, estimates the harp seal population in the world at 9.5 million.
The practice remains highly controversial, attracting significant media coverage and protests each year. The Inuit diet is rich in fish, whale, and seal. Researchers have found high levels of
mercury in the blood and tissues of polar bears, seals, and Inuit men, women.
The Inuit seal hunting accounts for three percent of the total hunt. The traditional Inuit seal hunting is excluded from The
European Commission's call in 2006 for a ban on the import, export and sale of all harp and hooded seal products. The
natsiq (ringed seal) have been the main staple for food, and have been used for clothing, boots, fuel for lamps, a delicacy, containers,
igloo windows, and furnished harnesses for huskies. The natsiq is no longer used to this extent, but ringed seal is still an important food source for the people of
Nunavut.
History of hunting elsewhere
Seal coats have long been prized for their warmth. Seal oil was often used as lamp fuel, lubricating and cooking oil, for processing such materials as leather and
jute, as a constituent of soap, and as the liquid base for
red ochre paint.
There is evidence that seals were hunted in northwest Europe and the
Baltic Sea more than 10,000 years ago. The first commercial hunting of seals is said to have occurred in 1515, when a cargo of fur seal skins from Uruguay was sent to Spain for sale in the markets of
Seville. Sealing became more prevalent in the late 1700s when seal herds in the southern hemisphere began to be hunted by
whalers. In 1778, English sealers brought back from the Island of
South Georgia and the
Magellan Strait area as many as 40,000 seal skins and 2,800 tons of elephant seal oil. In 1791, 102 vessels, manned by 3000 sealers, were hunting seals south of the equator. The principal American sealing ports were
Stonington and
New Haven Connecticut. Most of the pelts taken during these expeditions would be sold in
China. The peak of the sealing industry occurred in 1821, when
Lloyd's Register had 164 sealing vessels on their records.
By 1830, most seal stocks had been seriously depleted, and Lloyd's records only showed one full-time sealing vessel on its books. Since then, a number of nations have outlawed the hunting of seals and other marine mammals. Today, commercial sealing is conducted by only five nations:
Canada,
Greenland,
Namibia,
Norway, and
Russia. The United States, which had been heavily involved in the sealing industry, now maintains a complete ban on the commercial hunting of marine mammals, with the exception of indigenous peoples who are allowed to hunt a small number of seals each year.
Equipment and method
Rifles and hakapiks are permitted. Canadian sealing regulations describe the dimensions of the clubs and the
hakapiks, and caliber of the rifles and minimum bullet velocity, that can be used. They state that: "Every person who strikes a seal with a club or hakapik shall strike the seal on the forehead until its skull has been crushed," and that "No person shall commence to skin or bleed a seal until the seal is dead," which occurs when it "has a glassy-eyed, staring appearance and exhibits no blinking reflex when its eye is touched while it's in a relaxed condition."
Hakapiks
One method of killing seals is with the
hakapik, a heavy wooden club with a hammer head and metal hook on the end. The hakapik is used because of its efficiency, the animal can be killed quickly without damage to its pelt. The hammer head is used to crush the skull, while the hook is used to move the carcass.
The hakapik is the primary tool of hunters in the Gulf of St.Lawrence. Hunters who operate on the 'front' off the northeast coast of Newfoundland primarily use high powered rifles. The hakapik is then used as a last resort in retrieving the animal from the ice floe, and ensuring it's completely incapacitated.
Modern sealing
Products made from seals
Seal skins are used to make waterproof jackets and boots, and seal fur to make fur coats. Pelts account for over half the processed value of a seal, selling at over $100 each as of 2006. According to Paul Christian Rieber, of
GC Rieber AS, the difficult ice conditions and low quotas in 2006, resulted in less access to sealpelts, which caused the commodity price to be pushed up. Some high-end fashion designers, such as
Donatella Versace and
Gucci have begun to use seal pelts, while others, such as
Calvin Klein,
Stella McCartney,
Tommy Hilfiger, and
Ralph Lauren, refrain from using any kind of fur.
Seal meat is an important source of food for residents of small coastal communities. Researchers have found high levels of
mercury in the blood and tissues of seals, polar bears, and Inuit men and women. Meat is sold to the Asian pet food market, and used as
silage. In 2004, only
Taiwan and
South Korea purchased seal meat from Canada. The seal blubber is used to make seal oil, which is marketed as a fish oil supplement. In 2001, two percent of Canada's raw seal oil was processed and sold in Canadian health stores.
Sealing nations
In 2005, three companies exported seal skin:
Rieber in
Norway, Atlantic Marine in
Canada and Great Greenland in
Greenland. Their clients were earlier
French fashion houses and fur makers in Europe, but today the fur is mainly exported to Russia and China. Most sealing occurs in late March in the
Gulf of St. Lawrence, and during the first or second week of April off Newfoundland, in an area known as "The Front." This peak spring period is generally what is referred to as the "Canadian Seal Hunt".
In 2003, the three-year harp seal quota granted by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans was increased to a maximum of 975,000 animals per three years, with a maximum of 350,000 animals in any two consecutive years. The 2006 St. Lawrence leg of the hunt was officially closed on Apr. 3, 2006. Sealers had exceeded the quota by 1,000 animals by the time the hunt was closed. On
March 26,
2007 the Newfoundland and Labrador government launched a .
Warm winters in the Gulf of St. Lawrence have led to thinner and more unstable ice there. In 2007, Canada's
federal fisheries ministry reported that while the pups are born on the ice as usual, the ice floes have started to break up before the pups learn to swim, causing the pups to drown. The 2007 harp seal quota was reduced 20 percent by Canadian authorities because overflights showed large numbers of seal pups were lost to thin and melting ice. However in southern
Labrador and off Newfoundland's northeast coast, there was extra heavy ice in 2007, and the coast guard estimated that as many as 100 vessels were trapped in ice simultaneously.
Regulations
The "Seal Protection Regulations" were established under the Fisheries Act by the Government of Canada in the mid-1960s. The regulations were combined with other Canadian marine mammals regulations in 1993, into the "Marine Mammal Regulations". In addition to describing the use of the rifle and hakapik (see further up in this article), regulations also state that every person "who fishes for seals for personal or commercial use shall land the pelt or the carcass of the seal." Carino Limited is one of Newfoundland's largest seal pelt producers. Carino (CAnada-RIeber-NOrway) is marketing its seal pelts mainly through its parent company, GC Rieber Skinn, Bergen, Norway. Canada sold pelts to eleven countries in 2004, with Norway, Germany, Greenland, and China, including Hong Kong, purchasing the largest quantities. Other buying countries were Finland, Denmark, France, Greece, South Korea, and Russia. Asia remains the principal market for seal meat exports. One of Canada's market access priorities for 2002, was to "continue to press Korean authorities to obtain the necessary approvals for the sale of seal meat for human consumption in Korea." Canadian and Korean officials agreed in 2003 on specific Korean import requirements for seal meat. For 2004, only Taiwan and South Korea purchased seal meat from Canada.
Greenland
Although official figures for the Greenland seal hunt are not available, the government of Canada estimates that 20,000 to 25,000 seals are killed in Greenland annually. In January 2006, the government of Greenland banned imports of Canadian seal skins, citing fears that Canadian seals are brutally beaten to death. The boycott may be an effort to distance Greenland's own seal hunt from Canada's, and spare themselves negative press in the process. The ban was rescinded in May 2006, with the Greenland Home Rule Government noting that the seal hunt in Canada has sensible regulations on hunting methods, drawn up in close cooperation with biologists, veterinarians, weapons experts and seal hunters. It further noted that seal-hunting in Canada is subject to strict and extensive control measures, which some claim has led to the use of effective and humane killing methods.
Namibia
In 2000, the Namibian government approved a quota of 67,000 Cape fur seals, including 60,000 pups and 7,000 bulls.
Norway
Further Information
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