US government gives in to the anti-seal hunt lobby

Odd Grydeland A group of anti-seal hunters have called for a boicott of Canadian seafood imports to the US due to the continued practise of hunting harp seals off the East Coast of Canada. www.harpseals.org claims that Canada exports about $CAD 3 billion of seafood to the US each year, while the commercial seal hunt is valued at $CAD 16 million. Now the US government has passed a resolution calling for the complete ban on seal hunting in the waters off the East Coast of Canada "now and forever". Introduced in the House of Representatives by Democrat Tom Lantos and Republican Christopher Shays, the resolution suggested that more than 1 million seals have been killed in the past 3 years. "This inhumane practice is far beneath the dignity of the people of Canada:, Lantos said. Meanwhile, the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) puts the value of the 2006 seal hunting season at $CAD 33 million, and suggests that a 2004 survey estimated the Northwest Atlantic harp seal population at approximately 5.8 million animals, nearly triple what it was in the 1970s. DFO sets hunting quotas at levels that ensure the health and abundance of seal herds. In no way are seals - and harp seals in particular – an “endangered species”. DFO states that "Seals are a significant source of income for some individual sealers and for thousands of families in Eastern Canada at a time of year when other fishing options are limited at best, in many remote, coastal communities".