The picture above shows a gunman at the bow of the boat killing the seals while a trail of blood follows behind the boat.
The destruction of the Harp Seal is complicated by the fact there are no observers that could get close enough to observe the hunt. I am quite confident the hunters will have taken more than their limit because they weren't observed.
Additionally, the pups are compromised in their survival strategy due to Human Induced Global Warming. They have no solid sea ice to rest on where they can feed from their mothers. As a result there are less youngsters surviving to breed when mature which places them automatically on The Endangered List AGAIN due to the negligence of the Canadian government.
Seal hunt starts amid 'bad ice'
03 April 2007
CANADA'S controversial annual seal hunt opened today in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence, where the worst ice conditions in more than two decades have nearly wiped out the herd there.
Fisheries officials said the scarcity of seals in the area led to only two of 40 eligible boats participating in the start of the traditional northern spring hunt that is important to the livelihood of Canadian seal hunters and aboriginal peoples. "
The bad ice contributed to a high rate of drowning" of baby seals, Fisheries Department spokesman Phil Jenkins said. "The mortality from bad ice is going to be fairly high."
The ice is broken and deteriorated and Mr Jenkins said it is part of a trend seen over the past four or five years. Newborn seals cannot swim in the first weeks of life and need solid ice to survive.
The total quota for this year's seal hunt is 270,000 animals. That is 65,000 fewer than last year, a change made mainly because of the toll from the ice conditions.
The seal population in Canada now stands at about 5.5 million.
largest concentration of seals was in the more northerly Strait of Belle Isle, between Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador.
Ice conditions there are better and the area will be open to hunters beginning tomorrow.
About 70 percent of the seals sought in Canadian waters will be taken in the third stage of the hunt - off northern Newfoundland. An opening date has yet to be announced.
Animal welfare groups condemned the government's decision to allow a hunt in the southern region.
I've witnessed the hunt for nine years, and I've never seen ice conditions this bad," said Rebecca Aldworth of the Humane Society of the United States.
The US has banned Canadian seal products since 1972 and the EU banned the white pelts of baby seals in 1983.
The European Commission said earlier this month that it would launch a study to see whether seal hunting in Canada is carried out in a humane way, though it has so far rejected calls for an EU-wide ban on the import of adult seal pelts and other products.
AP
