We have here the usual anti sealing slant. The pups are no longer taken, but that has not slowed down the propaganda machine. It is just too good a photo op for every publicity seeker on Earth.
There is no ice this year so we are having mass mortality. What is more, the quota granted the hunters are completely meaningless if there is no ice. The hunting is done on the ice.
Yet the adults will survive to pup next year. Once the numbers for this year are understood, I am sure fisheries will back of the quotas enough to allow a quick rebound next year and the year after.
This is an unique weather event unlikely to be repeated in our lifetime and generally meaningless.
Once again, the harp seal population needs to be managed by human harvesting. I do not think it is optimized as yet and we fortunately have an historic harvest built around it. Recall a runaway population will collapse the local fishery bringing about a collapse of the harp seal population in a revolving boom and bust cycle.
Thousands of seal pups die as sea ice fails in Canada
There may be mass mortality of seal pups as the ice fails in the Gulf of St Lawrence . Credit S Cook/IFAW
Worst ice year on record leads to harp seals' demise
March, 2010. Thousands of harp seal pups are presumed dead in Canada 's Gulf of St Lawrence and starving pups are being found abandoned on the beaches of Prince Edward Island , tragic victims of the worst ice conditions recorded in eastern Canada
With the opening of Canada's cruel annual commercial seal hunt imminent, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) reports that the Gulf of St Lawrence, the annual birthing ground of hundreds of thousands of harp seals, is essentially devoid of both ice and seals.
Disastrous for seal pups
Sheryl Fink, a senior researcher with IFAW, said: "The conditions this year are disastrous for seal pups. I've surveyed this region for nine years and have never seen anything like this.
Thousands of seal pups missing
"There is wide open water instead of the usual ice floes, and rather than the hundreds of thousands of seal pups that we normally encounter, only a handful of baby harp and hooded seals - animals that are normally found on ice - remain on the beaches."
High mortality
Extremely high pup mortality is expected this year, making this one of several such occurrences in the past decade. In 2007, 99% of harp seal pups born in the
Highly unusual
Fink added: "Finding these ice-dependent seal species on land is extremely unusual, and should be considered a warning signal. The seal pups we have found on shore are thin and unable to defend themselves or escape from land-based predators. It is highly unlikely that any of these pups will survive long enough for there to be a seal hunt in the Southern Gulf this year."
Earlier this month, Fisheries Minister Gail Shea increased the total allowable catch of harp seals (TAC) by 50,000, to 330,000 animals. The Minister's announcement was loudly condemned by animal welfare organisations, conservationists and sealers, in a rare moment of agreement.
Last year, the European Union voted to ban the commercial trade in seal products from commercial hunts.
Seal hunt is "reckless and irresponsible"
Robbie Marsland, UK Director of IFAW, said: "It is reckless and irresponsible for the government to allow the hunt to proceed this year, given the high pup mortality that is expected. Under a precautionary approach, we should be protecting the few pups that might escape the devastating effects of climate change this year.
"Given the almost complete lack of demand for seal skins, allowing the commercial slaughter of these survivors to proceed is simply adding insult to injury."
