Fw: [BanFur] Sealing Under Fire

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- "Political Animal" <politicalanimal13 @ > (remove 2 spaces)Monday, March 29, 2004 2:22 PM[banFur] Sealing Under Fire

http://www.journalpioneer.com/MainPage.aspx?PageType=FullStory & PartialStory=No & StoryID=12317 Sealing under fireBy JIM BROWN Italian television reporter Cristina Stanesa kneelsbeside a harp seal pup Friday afternoon, on a giant ice-pan in the Gulf ofSt. Lawrence. On the same panof ice sealers clubbed and skinned seals that hadpassed the white-coat stage. The IFAW has brought 25journalists from around the world to witness thisyear's annual hunt in the Gulf of St. Lawrence andmobilize public opinion against the cull.CHARLOTTETOWN - From high above a snow-covered ice pan several feet thickand more than a mile wide, theyappear as shadows against a vast white canvas.As the helicopter swoops lower the seals

come intofull view, some pure-white, others with mottled whiteand brown fur.It's late Friday afternoon and the pilot finally findsa landing space where there is an abundance of sealsand several sealers, armed with skinning knives andclubs or hakapiks. Nearby are the boats that droppedthem off.In one of two helicopters flying from CharlottetownAirport that afternoon, are Italian televisionjournalist Cristina Stanesa and cameraman AntonioSantillo. They are joined by a guide from theInternational Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), whichhas organized their visit and contracted the servicesof helicopter pilots.They sprint towards nearby sealers who are moving toofast to be easily overtaken. They pause at a mound ofentrails, their faces taut as the gruesome images arecaptured on film for an audience of millions.The copter has landed in the Gulf of St. Lawrence,roughly 80 nautical miles east of

Charlottetown.Later Stanesa will kneel inches from a healthywhite-coated seal, pushing a microphone towards itsface to record its cries.It will be safe until its coat turns brown, at abouttwo to three weeks of age. Seals can be legally killedwhen they are 12 days old.Twenty-five journalists and parliamentarians are beingtaken to the ice to observe this year's hunt.More than 350,000 seals, which have lost their purewhite coats, were to be shot or clubbed and thenskinned under a three-year, one-million seal quota setby the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO).In 2003, 95 per cent of the sealers were fromNewfoundland with the remainder from the MagdaleneIslands.Rory McLellan, manager of the Prince Edward IslandFishermen's Association, has few kind words for theIFAW's campaign to ban the seal hunt, saying theorganization is run by "millionaires" who rely on"dupes" to get their

message out.McLellan said, "I'm not going to assist them inmilking... people of (their) money," by adding hiscomments to the controversy.The IFAW's agenda has little to do with science andprotecting natural ecosystems and plenty to do withkeeping coffers flush with cash, said McLellan.The IFAW's base of operations at the Inns on GreatGeorge in Charlottetown is a gathering spot forBelgian, Italian, German and Mexican journalists, whoswap horror stories and peer closely at video imagesreplayed over TV monitors, or countless still photoscalled up on laptops at the click of a mouse.A glossy press kit is also made available to reporters- containing a thick sheaf of news releases andseveral black and white and color photos. The photosrange from smiling IFAW members petting seal pups tobloody carcasses and club-wielding sealers.One photo, shot from an aircraft, reveals a dozensealwatchers

standing at the edge of a sea ofcarcasses, too far away to be seen as anything moredistinct than reddish blobs.Other photos are available on CD.Katy Heath-Eves, press officer for IFAW in Ottawastands next to a display of products made from seals.They include fur-lined key chains, seal oil containingOmega-3 fatty acids (something that can be readilyobtained from commercial fish), seal penises marketedas aphrodisiacs, fur-trimmed sealskin caps and cannedseal meat.Does the world really need these products? she asked.Heath-Eves says watching the seal cull is somethingthat requires a strong stomach.For the most part sealers "tolerate" the intrusion ofjournalists and IFAW activists into their world, shesaid, as long as they keep to the 10-metre distanceset by the DFO. Last year the limit was 15 metres.However there are many sealers who don't appreciatethe presence of non-sealers on

their turf, saidHeath-Eves."They harass us; they yell profanities at us, theylaugh and whistle and give us the finger," saidHeath-Eves. "It's very clear they are not happy to seeus out on the ice."Rebecca Aldworth, campaigner for the IFAW whodescribed an incident where a sealer chased afterjournalists and IFAW members Friday afternoon, sharesher view. "Sealers tend to forget they don't own theice in our ocean, and they don't own the sealseither."Aldworth said IFAW members have logged more than 660probable violations under the Marine Mammal Actrelated to the killing of seals over a three-yearperiod."We just found out two weeks ago they're (DFO) notgoing to proceed with any charges based on the 2003footage that we took," said Aldworth."What is clear (on the video) is that no blink reflextests or skull palpitations were performed." The blinkreflex test involves touching the seal's

eyeball todetermine if there is a reaction.Some of the worst examples of abuse were in the 2003season, when a lot of animals would be "struckineffectively" on the head and the sealers would flipthem over on their backs and start to cut them open,she said."The seals' flippers would start to clench up, whichis a sign of consciousness." The sealer, whenconfronted with this response, would typically clubthe animal again, resume cutting, and when it started to move again, strike it again, said Aldworth.One incident, on Saturday, was especially disturbing,said Aldworth. An injured seal was found amidst a pileof dead seal carcasses, and though sealers were nearby, they ignored herpleas to come over and dispatch the seal, she said.The incident was filmed by a television crew and acopy of the tape was to be forwarded to the DFO bythis morning, along with a formal complaint,

saidAldworth.Since the DFO doesn't press charges when tapes arehanded over to officials, sealers might start to feelthey are immune to any type of prosecution, she said.In 2001, according to the IFAW, an international teamof veterinarians determined 42 per cent of seals wereprobably skinned alive, contrary to the Act.Aldworth said IFAW guides and journalists found a pileof hundreds of carcasses on Thursday, and from anexamination of many skulls in the pile, she said itwas readily apparent many of those seals weren'tclubbed hard enough to be unconscious when they wereskinned."Many of the skulls were completely intact."Further studies, such as a report in the journalMarine Mammal Science, estimates up to half a millionseals a year, twice the allowed limit, may have beenkilled over the past several years. Many of thoseseals were wounded and simply slid beneath the ice todie. In recent

years thousands of pups have diedbecause of shrinking ice, blamed on climate change,says the IFAW. As the ice disappears nursing harpseals are separated from their mothers and die ofmalnourishment.Roger Simon, area manager for the DFO in the Magdalene Islands, has a different story. By all accounts the seal harvest is well managed and enforcement resources have never been higher, he said, noting there were seven fisheries officers and two helicopters monitoring 40 sealing vessels last week. More officers are on their way today."There is a very high level of enforcement,"representing the greatest level of surveillance of anyCanadian fishery."Of course there's not 100 per cent compliance,"allowed Simon, but sealers are well trained and knowthe rules and regulations.There are violations of rules, just as there are withthe lobster fishery and other fisheries, he said.As for concerns about cruelty expressed by

IFAWmembers, he said upwards of one million seals are born in Eastern Canada every year and hundreds of thousands, or about 30 per cent, will fall preyto sharks and other predators. Many will be crushed under ice or run over (accidentally) by by boats, saidSimon.Contrary to IFAW statements, harp seal populationshave risen from two million in 1980 to more than fivemillion today, said Simon.Sealing can be lucrative, with pelts fetching $55apiece, he said.As an indication of how well managed the industry is,Simon stated several wildlife organizations haveprotested the cull over the past several decades,including Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund, andonly the IFAW has continued to protest the hunt.As for why the DFO hasn't acted on concerns raised invideos, Simon said a Newfoundland court decision in1999 ruled videos submitted by the IFAW wereinadmissible since the tape had been spliced

andedited.In the last two or three years there have been two orthree suspected violations, but there hasn't beenenough evidence to pursue charges."Six hundred violations are totally absurd," saidSimon.The 2003 videos are original, unedited versions, whichofficers can now use, if there are violations, saidSimon.Simon also contradicted claims that seals were exposed to unnecessary pain and suffering during the killing process, saying veterinarians with the CanadianVeterinary Medical Association, after extensivestudies, were convinced that wasn't the case.Heath-Eves calls the current hunt, "largest quota inhistory...It's crueler than ever and the internationalcommunity is starting to take notice." Canada's seal hunt remains the largest cull of marine mammals in theworld, according to the IFAW.Heath-Eves becomes frustrated when she hears arguments posed by fishers groups and cynics who question

the IFAW's annual-seal hunt campaign. Seals are not responsible for the failure of the cod fishery to rebound more than a decade after most commercialfishing was banned, she insisted.It's too easy to blame one single link in a complexfood chain for the collapse of an entire industry andthe loss of tens of thousands of jobs, said the IFAW spokesperson."The theory that seals are eating all the cod andtherefore to bring back the cod you have to take outsome seals makes the assumption that there are onlytwo species in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean. Inreality that's a fragile, complex ecosystem with tensof thousands of interdependent species. Seals also eatpredators of cod."And Heath-Eves takes dead aim at another favoriteargument levied by supporters of the industry, that itgenerates substantial sums of money for strugglingcommercial fishers."We've done the math. Sealers aren't profiting quiteas

much as the perception is. Sealers pay 50 per centof their profits to the boat that they are on, andthere are after costs. What they come home with at theend of the season is maybe a thousand dollars (and)this is (during) record-high pelt price years. A lotof the time they make much less than that. This is notprimary income for anyone, it's a supplement."In good years sealers can expect to pocket $1,200, she said."Is it a tradition people enjoy? I'd like to asksealers if they think this is good work for them...Let's look at some viable, progressive alternativesthat actually provide a real future for AtlanticCanada. I don't want to see people out of work.Everybody out there feels an attachment to the ocean,to their surroundings, I just don't think the sealhunt is a great way of maintaining that connection."It's dangerous, it's backbreaking work that bringsvery little money to the table. How

aboutwhale-watching?" instead, she suggested.She went on to say "99.5 per cent of Newfoundlandersdon't participate in the seal hunt in any way, shapeor form.'Stewart Cook, who calls New York, Los Angeles andLondon his home, is a celebrity photographer who hasshot Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz and Julia Roberts and ahost of A-list Hollywood stars, including thoseattending this year's Oscars."I photograph red carpet events, the Oscars, stufflike that. I get pictures that go in broadsheetnewspapers as well as tabloids."But he also works for the IFAW, taking pictures ofseals and sealers during hunts."It's something I believe in strongly and I'm willing to not get huge bucks doing it," he said."There are some (photos) that have depicted how cruel the hunt can be andthose images always stand out."Such as, "when a club strikes a baby seal and itcreates a stream of blood and other

bodily fluids,it's pretty unpleasant. And also, when you slice ananimal alive it's not very pleasant either."Another anti-sealing activist, Michel Vandenbosch,president of the Belgium non-profit organization,Gaia, wondered how Canadians could allow suchbeautiful animals to be "skinned alive."Vandenbosch, who was accompanied to P.E.I. by twomembers of the Belgian parliament, said he was ashamedto be part of the human race.A European Union ban is already in place for veryyoung seal pups, less than two weeks old, but olderones are still being killed and their pelts and skinsare still being imported, he said.Vandenbosch said he and the two Belgianparliamentarians have already agreed, when they returnto Europe, to visit three ministers - of economy,consumer affairs and animal welfare, to lobby for thepassage of legislation that would ban all trade insealskins."We are hoping this will be an

inspiring example ofall the member states (of the EU)."

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