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Welcome to The Canadian Sealers Association website. Please feel
free to browse our site to learn more about this valuable
industry. Information such as statistics and press releases
are currently being updated on our site so check back again
for more recent updates.
N E W S
June, 2010
Fishermen call for a mandatory cull
Fishermen say the seal population in eastern Canada should be culled to help fish stocks rebound. The head of the Fish Food and Allied Workers union, that represents fishermen in Newfoundland and Labrador, says the Department of Fisheries and Oceans is ignoring the root cause of cod stock decline. Read more here
Two-thirds support seal hunt
(By Rob Cahill, Windsor Star June 1, 2010
Chrissy Vanderheide-Stolarski repeats a common animal activist refrain that "a vast majority of Canadians oppose the seal hunt." Concerned about the validity of this claim, the Seals and Sealing Network recently commissioned an independent polling company to survey a representative sample of 1,000 Canadians on knowledge and attitudes towards sealing and animal use. Read more here.
May 2010
Seal Cull for Sable Island a possibility: Study
The federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans is looking at two ways to reduce the population of grey seals off the Atlantic coast — focusing on Sable Island where 80 per cent of the population breeds. Read more here (CBC.ca)
Chronical Herald.ca also has a story on the proposed cull
Harvest extended till end of May
The annual seal hunt off Newfoundland and Labrador has been extended until the end of May. The season was scheduled to end May 15, but in a statement Tuesday, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans said the season had been extended to allow hunters more time to find buyers for pelts. Read more here (CBC.ca)
Omega-3 oils with Green Tea
Research project to focus on blending Omega-3 oils with Green Tea Breaking News print this article The Telegram The provincial government is investing up to $10,000 in research at Memorial University on the use of seal and fish oil derivatives in green tea formulations. Full story here (Telegram)
Perfect conditions
Sealers having easy time of spring hunt
Newfoundland sealers say smaller ice pack is making it easier to meet individual boat quotas this year — and the price they’re getting for pelts has improved. Animals have been concentrating on the smaller floes, making it easier for hunters to get to them, Frank Pinhorn of the Canadian Sealers Association said Wednesday. Full story here (Telegram)
Get your flippers!
Seal meat selling briskly in St. John's
Seal flippers from this year's hunt are on sale in St. John's. "It's been consistent, busy. People haven't got any seal yet so they're really looking forward to this," said Heidi Taylor, who started selling flippers and carcasses out of the Taylor's Fish Truck on the St. John's waterfront Wednesday. Read more here (CBC)
Harp Seal Hunt begins Thursday
Herd tripled in size since 1970's.
The harp seal hunt north of Newfoundland and Labrador is scheduled to begin Thursday with the quota increased by 50,000 animals to a total of 330,000. Federal Fisheries Minister Gail Shea has said the population of harp seals is about 6.9 million — more than triple what it was in the 1970s. CBC story here
Senator Larry Campbell tells it like it is
Senator's e-mail calls activist models 'losers'
Thwack! A Canadian Liberal senator has come out swinging against a pair of American sex kittens turned animal rights activists. It’s an unlikely international tiff — sealed with an apparent kiss off from Sen. Larry Campbell’s office. Last month, the Barbi Twins — California model sensations who busted out in the 1990s after it was found Prince William had a crush on the duo — announced they were boycotting Canada because of the east-coast seal hunt. (Toronto Sun story here)
March 18 2010
Pelt prices may be lower than last year, says CSA president
Ice shouldn't be a major issue for the sealing industry this spring. The price paid for pelts, however, will be.
That's according to Eldred Woodford, president of the Canadian Sealers Association.
Markets are down and buyers are purchasing fewer seal pelts, he explained Wednesday. Full Telegram story here
March 15 2010
Quota increase of 50,000 over last year
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has set this year’s total allowable catch for harp, hooded and grey seals at 388,200 — up 50,000 from last year’s total quota.
The Telegram story here
March 11, 2010
Seal-meat loin on MPs' lunch menu
Canada's parliamentarians like some bacon-wrapped seal loin. MPs and senators from across the political spectrum turned out for a special lunch Wednesday, drawn together by a menu featuring Canada's best-known furry sea mammal. Read more here at CBC
Video here
Seal pups beached in ice-free Gulf
Pups seen on Quebec shores, as far north as Newfoundland's Northern Peninsula
(The Canadian Press) An exceptional lack of sea ice on the Gulf of St. Lawrence this winter has left seal mothers with few places to bear their young or to feed their pups. The conditions have led to numerous sightings of fuzzy, days-old critters wallowing on beaches, where many will die. Some of those seals are being born on Newfoundland's Northern Peninsula. Read more here.
February 9, 2010
Higher market prices expected for this year's harvest. Full quota bought in advance for Hay Island.
Seal hunters are expecting the time they spend off Cape Breton this year will be much more lucrative than the last.
They have found a buyer for the full quota of 2,200 seal pelts for the Hay Island hunt, Robert Courtney of the North of Smokey-Inverness South Fishermen's Association said Sunday. CTV.ca news story here
Ethical-sealing pledge could lift EU ban
A Quebec senator is calling on Nunavut to sign on to a proposed international declaration on ethical seal hunting, which she says could help Canada challenge the European Union's trade ban on seal products. CBC.ca story here
Shameful! Sea Sheppard refuses to pay out $25,000 bet on proven evidence.
Darren Fancey of St. John's, creator of the pro-sealing website seashepherd.blogspot, is challenging Watson to make good on a pledge to pay $25,000 to anyone who could document the cod belly phenomenon. Globe and Mail story here
January 11, 2010
Inuit groups sue EU over seal trade ban
Inuit groups in Canada and Greenland are taking the European Union to court over its import ban on products derived from the seal hunt.
The lawsuit, announced Wednesday in Ottawa, aims to overturn the ban adopted by 27 European countries last year. The court documents have been filed in the European General Court, the first level of the EU's court system. CBC News story here
Canadian seal products at Beijing show
Above is a still from a CTV News story on the Beijing show. The video can
be viewed here.
A Canadian delegation is pitching seal products to Chinese buyers this week, hoping to expand the controversial animal's appeal in Asian markets. Gail Shea, federal minister of fisheries and oceans, is part of the delegation that is showcasing made-in-Canada seal products at the 36th International Leather and Fur Show in Beijing. The products include a clothing collection made from seal fur, seal oil, seal meat and even seal hearts. The delegation says the seal hearts could even replace pig heart valves currently used in some human surgeries. CBC story here | DFO Press Relase
February 9, 2010
Higher market prices expected for this year's harvest. Full quota bought in advance for Hay Island.
Seal hunters are expecting the time they spend off Cape Breton this year will be much more lucrative than the last.
They have found a buyer for the full quota of 2,200 seal pelts for the Hay Island hunt, Robert Courtney of the North of Smokey-Inverness South Fishermen's Association said Sunday. CTV.ca news story here
January 5, 2010
White House fuming mad at PETA
Obama's not impressed with PETA's illegal use of first Lady's image
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The fur is flying over a new ad campaign by an animal rights group the White House says is using first lady Michelle Obama's image without her permission.Full Associated Press story here
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ongoing discussion and reaction to the Seal Harvest go to The
Seal Fishery.com
INDUSTRY NEWS |
March, 2010
2010 personal-use seal licence requirements (DFO)
People interested in obtaining a personal use licence for the 2010 seal harvest season can do so by contacting DFO licencing offices across the province.
Requirements
If obtaining a new personal use licence a sealer must have:
• proof of age (18 or older);
•
a firearms safety/hunter education certificate;
•
proof they have attended a seal information session for new Personal Use Seal Licence applicants.
Seal information sessions for new applicants requesting Personal Use Seal Licences will include training in the three-step process of ensuring humane death.
Information sessions will be offered by DFO at various locations throughout the province over the next few weeks.
Registration
You can register for a course in your area now by calling your local DFO office. (DFO 2009 Seal Hunt site) All seal licence holders must follow the Marine Mammal Regulations, conditions of licence and all sealing activity is monitored by fishery officers.
February 2010
Limited Grey Seal Harvest on Hay Island. Nova Scotia government press release here
March 2009
Seal hunt gets underway off Îles de la Madeleine
The annual harp seal hunt began off Îles de la Madeleine in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence on Monday. Over the weekend, federal Fisheries Minister Gail Shea set the annual harp seal quota at 280,000 animals for the entire hunt, including N.L. That's 5,000 more than last year
European seal bans worry Nunavut politicians
CBC News
European sealing bans have become an urgent concern among Nunavut politicians after Russia decided this week to ban the hunting of baby harp seals while the European Union considers its own seal ban. Story is here
Veterinarians offer workshops to train sealers to conduct harvest according to new Federal 3 step process.
Two veterinarians from the Atlantic Veterinary College in Charlottetown spent two weeks this year giving workshops to ensure hunters understand the new 3 step process introduced last season. The process which is required by the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans to ensure a clean a kill of the seals.
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