Humane Society International / Canada
Issue Type: Seal slaughter
Record low sea ice cover, ongoing pandemic are urgent reasons to suspend the slaughter
Humane Society International / Canada
MONTREAL—In the wake of the lowest sea ice formation in recorded history off of Canada’s East Coast, Humane Society International/Canada is urging the Canadian government to stop the commercial seal hunt. Canadian government scientists anticipate mass mortality of newborn seal pups as their sea ice habitat melts before they are strong enough to survive in open water. Furthermore, allowing hundreds of sealers to operate in cramped conditions on sealing vessels during a global pandemic presents a clear threat to public health.
“Climate change is causing rapid deterioration of the sea ice cover off of Canada’s East Coast. For the ice breeding seals who are the targets of the commercial seal hunt, it is a disaster,” stated Rebecca Aldworth, executive director of Humane Society International/Canada and a first-hand observer of Canada’s commercial seal hunt for eighteen years. “No responsible government would allow the few pups who survive these unprecedented ice conditions to be slaughtered just to produce fashion items. Moreover, no responsible health authority would allow this senseless, shameful hunt to proceed during a global pandemic. We are calling on the Canadian government to do the right and responsible thing and stop the 2021 commercial seal slaughter in Atlantic Canada.”
Canadian government scientists clearly state that the sea ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and off of Newfoundland will continue to deteriorate, and that the resulting mass mortality of pups will have a severe impact on the harp seal population. A precautionary approach to wildlife management clearly precludes commercial hunting of an ice dependent species whose ice habitat is quickly vanishing.
Notably, climate change makes commercial seal killing methods even more inhumane. Veterinary studies have strongly emphasized the severe suffering that results from shooting seals in or near open water, given the high wounding rates documented in the Canadian seal hunt, and the ability of wounded seals to escape beneath the water’s surface (where they die slowly and are not retrieved). As ice conditions deteriorate, almost all commercial sealing will happen in these conditions. Moreover, when seals are shot in open water or on ice too fragile for a sealer to stand on, they are retrieved with gaffs (long wooden poles with metal hooks) without the sealers first being able to physically confirm death. This results in many seals being impaled, while conscious, on metal hooks and hoisted onto bloody boat decks before they are beaten to death.
If the Canadian government refuses to stop the slaughter for good, at the very least, commercial sealing should be suspended in 2021. Failing even this basic precautionary measure, the Canadian government must, at a bare minimum, issue variance orders to:
- Cancel all quotas allocated in the Gulf of St. Lawrence region given the exceptionally high pup mortality that will occur in the region
- Delay the opening date of the Newfoundland hunt given poor ice conditions will likely delay birthing (as was evidenced in 2011, another year with poor sea ice conditions)
- Prohibit the killing of moulting newborn seals (ragged jackets) to prevent mass slaughter of these exceptionally young pups (as was documented in 2011)
- Prohibit shooting and clubbing of seals in or near open water as a measure to reduce the number of struck and lost animals during the slaughter
- Prohibit gaffing or hooking of animals without prior physical confirmation of death.
Download seal hunt video and photos here and here
ENDS
Media Contact: Michael Bernard, Deputy Director, HSI/Canada: 613.371.5170; mbernard@hsi.org
Humane Society International / United Kingdom
LONDON—Scotland has banned the shooting of seals by the fisheries industry in a move welcomed by Humane Society International/UK as critically important for seal welfare in British waters. Large numbers of seals are shot in Scotland every year in the name of protecting commercial fish farms and fisheries. HSI has long been highly critical of this cull on welfare grounds, highlighting the lack of independent oversight, potential under-reporting of numbers of seals killed, the killing of pregnant females and mothers who may have dependent pups, and evidence that shooting does not always lead to instantaneous death.
The Scottish Parliament has approved the Animals and Wildlife (Penalties, Protections and Powers) (Scotland) Bill which amends the Marine Scotland Act (2010), repealing the provision to grant licences for the shooting of seals on the grounds of protecting fisheries and fish farms. The penalty for illegal seal shooting has also been increased to 12 months’ imprisonment/£40,000 fine or, on indictment, unlimited fine/5 years’ imprisonment.
Since the licensing requirement for seal shooting took effect in 2011, Scottish government figures suggest that 1,917 seals have been shot in pursuit of fisheries protection, although HSI says the true death toll is likely to be higher because of potential underreporting and a lack of independent verification of kills.
The timing of this ban is linked to regulatory requirements under the US Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) that come into effect in January 2022, meaning that Scotland would not be permitted to continue its lucrative salmon exports to the US after 2022 if it continued to allow seal shooting. In recent years, the US has been one of the top export markets for Scottish salmon, with exports worth £179m to the US reported in 2019. Whilst this is likely a significant driver in the development of the ban, HSI welcomes that officials from Marine Scotland told Members of the Scottish Parliament at a recent Committee hearing that the intention of the amendments is to enhance and improve the welfare of seals.
Humane Society International’s Senior Marine Scientist, Mark Simmonds OBE, says: “An alarming number of seals are shot and killed in Scottish waters, and there is evidence that some are likely to be injured and die a slow and painful death at sea and may not show up in the official statistics. It’s a huge concern and so a ban on seal shooting in Scotland is critically important for seal welfare in British waters. HSI has worked for many years to provide the solid scientific evidence needed to demonstrate the welfare impact on seals, so it is really excellent news that Scottish lawmakers have listened and put an end to the licensed seal cull in order to protect them from this cruelty.
“We share our seas with these charismatic marine mammals, and it is simply unacceptable to kill them for eating the fish in their ocean home. It is important that this ban comes swiftly into force and that the situation is carefully and independently monitored to ensure there is not a spike in seal killing in the run-up to its implementation, or indeed illegal killing afterwards. Benign methods to keep seals away from fish farms will need to be deployed and carefully observed to ensure that they are safe.”
Claire Bass, Executive Director of HSI/UK, said: “The majority of consumers are not happy for seals to be collateral damage in the price of salmon, and now US import requirements have introduced a strong economic incentive to call a halt to the cruel killing.”
The UK is home to two seal species, the grey seal and the harbour (or common) seal. Grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) are among the rarest seals in the world, and the UK population of some 124,000 grey seals represents approximately 40% of the world population, and 95% of the EU population. There are pup nurseries on many coasts between the Isles of Scilly in the south-west, clockwise to Donna Nook in Lincolnshire. The largest being in the Inner and Outer Hebrides, Orkney, Isle of May, Farne Islands and Donna Nook. Less than 15% of pups are born away from the above areas, but there is also an important breeding population on the west Wales coast.
The UK is also home to at least 33,400 harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) and whilst there has been a recovery, there is concern about declines in some populations. Only the eastern Atlantic subspecies P. vitulina vitulina occurs in Europe, where its range extends from Iceland and northern Norway southwards to northern France, including the Kattegat/Skagerrak and south-western Baltic. The UK population represents about 5% of the world population, approximately 50% of the EU population, and 45% of the European subspecies. The vast majority of common seal haul-outs are found on the coasts of Scotland.
Seals face a multitude of other threats in addition to shooting, including entanglement in fishing gear and marine litter, pollution and disturbance on their breeding and moulting grounds.
ENDS
Media contact: Wendy Higgins, HSI UK: whiggins@hsi.org
Notes:
In 2017 the US introduced regulations requiring ‘reliable information’ demonstrating that ‘exports of fish and fish products to the United States are not the product of an intentional killing or serious injury of a marine mammal’.
More information about the relevant welfare concerns can be found in these online papers which HSI has helped to produce: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2016.00142/full and https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X17307303?via%3Dihub
Humane Society International / Canada
Humane Society International / Europe
BRUSSELS—Humane Society International celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the historic European Union ban on trade in commercial seal products. The EU ban, a watershed event in the global campaign to stop commercial sealing, was adopted by an overwhelming majority in the European Parliament on 5th May 2009.
The impact of the EU ban — and of the many other seal product trade prohibitions that followed — is undeniable. Prices paid for seal fur in Atlantic Canada have declined by more than 70%, while 90% of licensed commercial sealers no longer participate in the slaughter because it is not profitable for them to do so. As a result, more than 3 million seals have been spared a horrible fate in the past decade alone. International prohibitions on the seal product trade contain clear exemptions for products of indigenous seal hunts.
Rebecca Aldworth, executive director for HSI/Canada, said: “Ten years ago, I watched firsthand as the European Parliament voted to prohibit commercial trade in seal products. In the minutes before the vote, images of so many suffering and dying baby seals kept flashing through my mind. When the vote was in, I knew that the beginning of the end of this brutal industry had just happened. As someone who has observed commercial sealing for 18 years, I will be forever grateful to the EU for its moral leadership and for saving so many seals from a horrible fate.”
Dr Joanna Swabe, senior director of public affairs for HSI/Europe, added: “The adoption of the EU Regulation on trade in seal products was certainly an amazing landmark victory for animal protection, but this was not the end of the story. In the years that followed, the legislation was subjected to and, most importantly, withstood separate spurious legal challenges in the European Courts and at the World Trade Organization. Most importantly, the WTO Appellate Body ruled that, while the legislation needed tweaking, the EU was justified in banning the cruel products of commercial seal hunts on the grounds of public morality. By 2015, I found myself back in the European Parliament talking about seals again as a legislative proposal to amend the ban to make it fully compliant with WTO rules was considered by MEPs. Yet again, the seal product trade ban survived cynical attempts from opponents to water it down and thankfully the EU’s borders remain firmly shut to commercial seal products.”
FACTS
- In 2009, the European Parliament voted 550 to 49 in favor of a strong ban on trade in products of commercial seal hunts. In 2010, the EU ban came into force.
- The commercial seal hunt in Atlantic Canada has been the largest slaughter of marine mammals on earth, with hundreds of thousands of seal pups clubbed and shot to death each year.
- The seals are killed primarily for their fur. The Canadian government notes that the pelts of young seals are the most valuable and not surprisingly, more than 98% of the seals killed each year are less than three months of age.
- The commercial seal hunt in Atlantic Canada is conducted by commercial fishermen who, on average, earn a tiny fraction (less than 5%) of their annual incomes from killing seals. Today, only a few hundred fishermen participate in the annual slaughter.
- Harp seals—the primary targets of the Atlantic Canadian commercial seal hunt—are ice-breeding animals, and climate change is fast destroying their sea ice habitat. According to Garry Stenson, section head for marine mammals for Fisheries and Oceans Canada, “We’re seeing two things: fewer animals pupping and when they do, there is a high mortality with it…The ice isn’t thick and it breaks up before the animal can survive on its own… We’ve been seeing years where ice mortality is very high. We’ve seen dead pups that have drowned. It has a big impact on mortality.”
- To date, more than 37 countries—including the 28 Member States of the European Union—have prohibited trade in products of commercial seal hunts for conservation or animal welfare reasons.
- Canada and Norway challenged the EU ban at the World Trade Organization. In 2013, the WTO upheld the right of the EU to ban the trade in commercial seal products on the grounds of public morality. In 2014, the WTO considered an appeal to that ruling. Although the WTO Appellate Body, once again, ruled largely in favour of the EU, the EU agreed to make minor amendments to the ban to achieve full compliance to WTO rules before 18th October 2015
- The WTO ruling in seals set a legal precedent because it was the very first time that animal welfare has been recognised by the WTO as a legitimate public moral concern.
- In September 2015, the European Court of Justice rejected an appeal brought by commercial sealing interests and some Inuit representatives with regard to the EU ban on trade in seal products. This appeal concerns a 2013 decision by the European General Court, which rejected the appellants’ request to find the legal basis and implementing measures for the EU ban on commercial seal product trade unlawful.
- In October 2013, the Court of Justice of the European Union preserved the EU ban on commercial seal product trade by dismissing an appeal by commercial sealing and fur trade interests and some Inuit representatives. The appeal sought to overturn a 2011 decision from the European General Court that the applicants’ action against the EU ban was inadmissible.
- A separate application to have the EU seal product trade ban overturned was rejected in April 2010.
END
Media contact: Jo Swabe, jswabe@hsi.org