Paul Watson, Founder and Executive Director of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
Captain Watson has been fighting the Canadian seal slaughter all his life.
"Maritimes has become a glorified welfare system. The Maritimes are now the most heavily subsidized economic region in the world. We would be better off and we would actually save more money to pay the fishermen not to fish and seal. As for jobs. There has never been a guarantee of jobs in a world of diminishing resources. Newfoundland is the victim of its own actions in violating the three basic laws of ecology - The law of diversity, the law of interdependence and the law of finite resources." -Paul Watson
Canadian Seafood Boycott
Sea Shepherd asks you to honor this boycott which is one of three strategies that we are pursuing as a part of the Unified Opposition against the Canadian seal slaughter (Canadian Seafood Boycott and Demonstrations) .
Those who kill the seals and their related industries are our targets. That's why our MAIN BOYCOTT TARGET is: Seafood from Atlantic Canada
This large chain of restaurants may be the single largest importer of Canadian seafood in the world.
The Red Lobster restaurant chain is the world's largest purchaser of Canadian seafood and, in particular, seafood sold by Canadian sealers. For this reason, organizations are doing all they can to convince Red Lobster to help end the Canadian commercial seal hunt by boycotting Canadian seafood. So far, Red Lobster has refused to do so. Please join us in asking Red Lobster President Kim A. Lopdrup not to buy or serve Canadian seafood until the Canada's commercial seal hunt is ended.
Help educate Red Lobster patrons and show them how they can help influence Red Lobster to do the right thing and help end the slaughter of seals. Download this Red Lobster leaflet which can be handed to Red Lobster customers as they are entering the restaurant and/or placed on their windshields! Share it with friends and family. Make copies and distribute widely! [Note: Print 2-sided and cut into fourths]
Go to Sea Shepherd's "Red Lobster Public Interest Message
Darden Restaurants, Inc, headquartered in Orlando, Fla., is the world’s largest company-owned and operated restaurant company with almost $6.7 billion in annual sales and through subsidiaries, the company owns and operates more than 1,700 restaurants including Red Lobster, Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, The Capital Grille, Bahama Breeze and Seasons 52.
Get the Code to Post this Petition on your Website! GO!
Urge your local grocer to join the Canadian Seafood Boycott GO!
Why We Boycott Canadian Seafood
The Canadian sealers are fishermen. Sealing is an off-season activity for them, a way to earn a few bucks before the start of the fishing season. The Canadian seafood boycott allows us to pressure sealers to stop killing seals - or risk losing their main source of income.
Many seafood companies lobby for the seal slaughter. One of them (the Barry Group) owns the second largest seal skin processing company (Atlantic Marine Products) and therefore has a direct reason to support the seal hunt. Others still believe that they'll catch more fish if they kill off the seals. And those companies that don't actively lobby for the seal hunt either quietly support the massacres or are too timid to challenge government policies. The Canadian seafood boycott will encourage all Canadian fishing companies to demand an end to the seal hunt. -Harpseals.org
By boycotting tourism to Canada, especially to Newfoundland and the Magdalen Islands of Quebec, seal hunt opponents can pressure sealers and their supporters to change their stance on the seal-hunt.
About the Sealers
There are 14,000 registered sealers of which 9,000 are considered professional sealers.
The sealing season lasts only a few weeks each year. Not all registered sealers kill seals. Some people register as sealers without having ever gone to the ice and they have no intention of going. Wearing their seal license button gets them free drinks in some areas of Atlantic Canada. All it takes to get a license is CAD$2.00. The Canadian government states that about 6,000 people receive some income from sealing. This amounts to about 1% of the population of Atlantic Canada. It is limited employment and highly subsidized. In 2005, the seal hunt brought in $16.2 million* in gross revenues. This amounts to $2,700 average per sealer before deductions for fuel, vessel maintenance and operation, provisions, gear and clothing. Some like sealing boat owners may make over $50,000 and some working as crew may only make a $1,000 or less.
Subsidies are provided by the Canadian government in the form of ships which break the ice to assist the sealers in reaching the seals; search and rescue by the Coast Guard; surveillance and location of the seal herds for the sealers; regulatory costs; marketing research; and public relations.
The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) states that there are no subsidies by DFO. There is if the regulatory and surveillance cost are considered. Most of the costs for supporting the seal slaughter are from the Department of Transport for ice-breakers and search and rescue. Subsidies are also given by the government of Newfoundland.
Overall, the sealing industry is negligible and costs more in tax dollars to support than it brings in.
A few individuals do make large amounts of money. Bill Barry of the Barry group, (a close friend of Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams), does quite well processing seal oil into a purported health supplement. Former federal Fisheries Minister John Crosbie is a millionaire heir to the fortunes made from the Crosbie Sealing Company. (more)
Alternatives for Sealers
1994 - Captain Paul Watson and Sea Shepherd International Director Lisa Distefano lead an expedition to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and collect the hair fibers of molting harp seal pups, initiating a pilot project that will utilize the hollow seal hairs in insulated bedding products. The seal brushing demonstrates a non-lethal, cruelty-free alternative to sealing. (more)
Sealers earn most (about 95%) of their living as fishermen. As they deplete the oceans by over-fishing, destroying habitat with bottom trawlers, and indiscriminately killing sea life with long liners and other fishing technologies, their income from fishing is likely to decline. Sealing never has offered a lucrative alternative or supplement to the fishermen's income. Most of the proceeds from sealing go to boat captains and seal skin processors.
Nevertheless, sealers have been offered alternatives, such as 'seal brushing'. Each individual hair follicle of the whitecoat seal pups is hollow, keeping the babies warm and happy in the subzero temperatures. As the babies continue to their second stage of growth, they begin to molt and lose this outer layer of hair. This is when they can be easily brushed and the hair collected for bedding and other applications. Paul Watson and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society have attempted on multiple occasions to introduce this idea to the Canadian sealers, even finding a businessman who offered more money for each brushed seal than the sealers could make from the pelt. Unfortunately, the idea was rejected time after time.
The sealers reasoning for rejection? As one sealer put it in 1999 in the Magdelein Islands, "Seals are meant to be clubbed, not brushed. We don't want nothing to do with no faggoty idea like that".
This sweater was made with seal fur that was brushed from a living seal.
The European Union is working on a complete ban of seal product imports.
The European Union initially banned imports of pelts from whitecoat seal pups (pups under about 2 weeks of age, before the molting stage) in 1983. This contributed to the near-destruction of the sealing industry. However, the Canadian government and sealing industry soon exploited a loophole in this law.
EU Ban of Seal Products Updates
LONG LIVE THE SEALS
On Friday, April 24th the European ambassadors approved a European Union proposal to ban imports of furs and all seal products. This moves the 27 nation bloc much closer to the final decision to impose the ban and final approval now is really only a formality.
Canada and Norway are threatening a trade war with Europe but Canada needs trade with Europe far more than Europe needs seal products. Canadians in the non-barbaric industries will not have much patience in losing profits in defence of the slaughter of seals.
Canada and Norway are threatening to take Europe before the World Trade Organization. - Captain Watson(more)
European senate proposed a ban on the sale of seal products GO!
The annual East Coast seal hunt is underway in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence and about 20 sealing vessels from around the islands have moved out among the ice floes. GO!
Canadian Government attempting to sell the Farley Mowat GO!
Russia Bans the Slaughter of Baby Harp Seals! - Read Article at Sea Shepherd!
Canada's Other Seal Hunt - Nova Scotia Grey Seals
"Each year on small islands in Nova Scotia, thousands of baby grey seals are bludgeoned with crude wooden bats by fishermen who bitterly blame them for the collapse of groundfish stocks. Until last year this annual slaughter occurred in secret. Last year, world attention focused upon the plight of Nova Scotia's grey seals when the provincial government allowed sealers to access Hay island, a protected wilderness area, and slaughter up to 2,500 baby grey seals. When sealers left the island, 1,261 pups were dead and a few unmoulted pups remained. Humane Society International and Atlantic Canadian Anti-Sealing Coalition captured the cruelty of Nova Scotia's grey seal hunt on film for the first time and showed that footage to the world.
Although no longer Nova Scotia's dirty little secret, grey seals are still killed in a horrifyingly cruel manner. This week 200 defenceless grey seal pups were bludgeoned to death on Hay Island, despite a lack of markets for their skins. Many believe the grey seal hunt is not a commercial hunt, but rather a cull demanded by fishermen to exterminate what they consider to be competitors for their fish.
This is Nova Scotia's shame. This is Canada's other seal hunt. The slaughter of baby greys." -Bridget Curran
I n Scotland fishermen can shoot seals all year round. Incredibly, no-one knows how many seals are being killed - because there is no requirement for seal killings to be recorded. However, it is estimated that thousands of seals are shot by fishermen and fish farm employees or contractors around Scotland’s coastline every year.
Seal Warriors is an eye opener to those that aren't involved yet as much, but also a good inspiration for all of us. Captain Watson is a true activist, a man with passion, wisdom and character. A true warrior who will never give up the fight.
Seals Need Your Help - Please Join Us On March 15
The Day Of Action For Seals in Canada
In March, the world’s largest annual slaughter of marine mammals will resume, and the seals in Canada need your help! Please join WFLF and IDA for a Day of Action for Seals in Canada on March 15. Thousands of harp seals will be clubbed, hooked and skinned to death for their fur - unless you speak loudly enough to stop it!
What: Demo against seal slaughter in Canada
When: March 15, 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Where: Canadian Consulate General – 550 South Hope Street - Los Angeles, California
"Seal Warriors"
WITH
Captain Paul Watson
Sea Shepherd believes this about the Canadian seal slaughter:
* The slaughter of seals is incredibly cruel (a post mortem survey has shown that 42% of these babies are skinned alive)
* It is a threat to the survival of the species
* It is a threat to the survival of cod
* It is a slaughter done mainly for unessential, vanity, and luxury items, and therefore, is unnecessary
* It is unethical to slaughter newborn seal pups (About 95% of the seals to be slaughtered are babies less than four weeks old)
In 2005, the Sea Shepherd flagship Farley Mowat sailed to the ice floes of Eastern Canada and had a successful campaign although we did not stop the seal slaughter. What we did do was to elevate international public and media awareness of the slaughter. The Canadian government was forced on the defensive.
Eleven of our crew were arrested for filming seal killers without permission from the government. These arrests will give us the opportunity to challenge these censorship regulations as violations of the Canadian Constitution and the Charter of Rights.
Despite the regulations and despite attempts by the Canadian government to prevent us from entering the ice floes, we did break our way into the floes and we were able to block and annoy the sealers. We were there as the eyes and ears of the world community to document the lies continuously spewed forth by the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
The Canadian government states that the seals are killed humanely. Our documentation has proven otherwise.
The Canadian government states that they do not subsidize the "hunt." Our documentation has exposed this lie - time and again, we witnessed the Canadian Coast Guard ships breaking ice and leading sealing ships through the floes to get to the seal nurseries. [see Parade of Fools for more information]. Also, during bad weather, the Coast Guard were extremely busy rescuing sealers whose ships became locked in the ice.
We documented the Canadian Coast Guard ship running down and crushing seals in the ice. We documented hostile sealers viciously attacking our crew on the ice.
The Canadian government spent hundreds of thousands trying to make sure we did not take any pictures of seals being killed. Their Coast Guard vessel, Amundsen, kept close watch on us - sometimes, dangerously close.
Captain Paul Watson has over four decades of experience at sea, and more than two decades as Master and Commander of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society voyages to protect, defend, and conserve the Earth’s wild oceans.
He earned his experience in the Norwegian and Swedish Merchant Marine in the sixties and early seventies, and served as First Officer on Greenpeace voyages between 1971 and 1976.
Since 1979, he has commanded over 200 primarily offshore voyages in storms, ice packs, through canals and treacherous currents, and dangerous confrontations without a single accident or a single injury to his crew or to anyone else. In fact, on many occasions he has commanded two ships simultaneously, relaying orders to a subordinate captain when it has been necessary to deploy two ships at once.
Captain Watson is a sea captain in the truly traditional sense – where he is the master and commander of his own ships and is not dictated to by a corporate Board. He makes the decisions and he bears the full responsibility for his actions.
In 1994, Sea Shepherd acquired a miniature submarine Mirage. A spokesperson for the Canadian Navy publicly stated that no one at Sea Shepherd knew anything about operating a submarine and it was ridiculous for Sea Shepherd to acquire one. He guaranteed that someone would be hurt.
Captain Paul Watson responded to the Canadian Naval spokesperson at the time by saying:
“Since World War II, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has boarded more ships, rammed more ships, engaged in more high seas confrontations and sunk more ships than the Canadian Navy. They are hardly in a position to presume to judge what we are competent or capable of doing.”
Our record speaks for itself: All these years later – still no injuries.
So that others may appreciate the depth of experience that Captain Watson has as a master mariner, the Society is posting on the website, the complete sailing record of Sea Shepherd voyages.
Without a doubt, the Sea Shepherd is the most experienced marine wildlife conservation interventionist organization in the world, and Captain Watson is the single most experienced marine conservation sea captain on the high seas today.
On the front lines of direct action marine conservation
A Brief Overview
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society was formally incorporated in the United States in 1981 in the state of Oregon. Previous to this, the idea of Sea Shepherd was formed when Captain Paul Watson founded the Earth Force Society in 1977 in Vancouver BC, Canada. The original mandate of both organizations was marine mammal protection and conservation with an immediate goal of shutting down illegal whaling and sealing operations, but Sea Shepherd later expanded its mission to include all marine wildlife.
In 1978, with financial support from Cleveland Amory of the Fund for Animals, the Society purchased its first ship (a British sea trawler Westella) and renamed it the Sea Shepherd. Its first mission was to sail to the ice floes of Eastern Canada to interfere with the annual killing of baby harp seals known as whitecoats. In the same year, the Sea Shepherd hunted down and rammed the notorious prolific pirate whaler the Sierra in a Portugal harbor ending its infamous career as the scourge of the seas.
Since those early days, Sea Shepherd has embarked on over 200 voyages covering many of the world's oceans and defending and saving defenseless marine life all along the way.
"In 2008, total trade between Canada and the United States exceeded $650 billion. Significantly, Canada exports nearly two-thirds of its seafood to the U.S., producing $2.5 billion annually for the Canadian economy. To put this in perspective, Industry Canada statistics show the total value of sealskin exports from Newfoundland and Labrador in 2007 was about $8 million."
Sea Shepherd to Bill $1000.00 a Day for the Farley Mowat
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society will be billing the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans $1,000.00 per day for every day that the FarleyMowat is unlawfully held by the department.
The ship was taken by armed government thugs in international waters on April 12th, 2008. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society considers this to be an act of high seas piracy and is confident that the case against the Captain and the First Officer of the Farley Mowat will result in a victory for the defense.
“At no time did my ship ever enter the 12 mile limit,” said Captain Alex Cornelissen. “They had no right to board us and these charges are ridiculous. All we did was take pictures of seals being slaughtered on the ice.”
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society will send an invoice on the 12th of each month asking for $30,000 for the time the ship is held from the Society. This will be $365,000 every year.
The 2010 Winter Olympics is an international event hosted by Canada and a boycott of the games provides an opportunity to focus international attention on the slaughter of seals. For example, in response to the international protest and bad publicity, the British Columbian government canceled the wolf hunt in 1986.
Canadians who oppose the seal kill are not anti-Canadian... They are in fact standing up for Canada's honour in opposing a bloody cruel horrific needless slaughter that brings nothing but shame to Canada.
The harp, hood, and grey seals have never been and are not a threat to the survival of the cod. The cod populations were destroyed by human greed and
incompetence.
The banning of seal products by European nations has and will significantly hurt the sealing industry. Pelt prices have fallen dramatically as a result. Canada has responded by spitefully raising the quota by 55,000 seals to 338,000 seal pups. They are now killing seals without any real markets for the seal pelts.Canada is attempting to build markets in China and.Japan, the last of the wildlife barbarian
nations other than Norway, Iceland and Canada... So we must keep the pressure on and we must continue to destroy the markets for this vicious industry and it’s vile products. To do so we must seize every opportunity to use economic leverage against Canada.
The Seal Slaughter is Cruel according to Canadian Sealers
Despite the fact every elected Canadian politician and Canadian Senator with the exception of Mac Harb insists that the Canadian seal slaughter is the "most well managed, humane animal cull in the world," the evidence is overwhelmingly pointing to the reality that Canadian politicians will deny their own mothers to kiss the ass of the Newfoundland and Magdalen Island voters.
The political cravenness of Canadian politicians is mind-boggling. If a seal pup was skinned alive in front of them, most would insist that it was a trick by the seal defenders. The fact is that with the exception of one or two politicians, the rest have never set foot on the ice to personally witness the horrific cruelty of the harp seal massacre.
The hundreds of hours of video footage and the thousands of photographs taken over the last four decades provide a solid case fro cruelty yet all of the evidence is rejected in order to kow-tow to the party line that no matter what the evidence - the killing of seals by Canadian sealers has always been, is and will forever be the most humane hunt on the planet.
Now even the words of the men who kill the seals provide evidence of the abject cruelty of the slaughter. Of course, descriptions of the slaughter have been presented before by sealers like Pol Chartaine of the Magdalen Islands (The Living Ice -1980) and Michael Dwyer of Newfoundland (Over the Side Mickey - 1998).
Sea Shepherd Partnership with LUSH Gains Momentum for the Seals
On March 19, 2009, Captain Paul Watson spoke at the LUSH Georgetown store in Washington, D.C., where the store staff also dressed like pirates. That evening Captain Watson attended the Environmental Film Festival in Washington, D.C. to introduce the screening of At The Edge of the World about Sea Shepherd's 2006/07 Whale Defense Campaign Operation Leviathan, and LUSH store employees distributed postcards for signature to those attending the screening. Over 300 people attended. As stated by Captain Watson, "Sea Shepherd is extremely grateful to LUSH for their efforts to bring this issue into the spotlight. After witnessing the cruel slaughter of seals first hand and devoting most of my life to bringing it to an end, I am hopeful that the increased public awareness through the LUSH campaign for the seals will aid the efforts by those of us working to stop this barbaric practice once and for all."
On March 24, 2009, the LUSH store in Vancouver on Robson Street hosted another event to continue spreading awareness about the need to end the commercial hunt on the east coast of Canada. LUSH North American co-owner Karen Wolverton personally attended the event and showed her support for the seals by courageously having her body painted red and lying in the middle of a Canadian flag replica. Several media outlets documented the event and many pedestrians stopped to sign petition postcards as well. Sea Shepherd's Media Manager, Amy Baird, was able to attend to support LUSH and speak to the media about the need to end the commercial hunt. (More)
LUSH and Sea Shepherd with Alice Newstead as she makes a courageous protest to save sharks.
SONG FOR CANADA'S HARP SEALS
The song was inspired by Rebecca Aldworth's 2005 Journal.
Seal Warriors, featuring music from "Song for Canada's Harp Seals"
The Namibian Seal Slaughter has been called the cruelest in the world. 910,000 seals are earmarked to be killed in the next ten years, with an annual quota of 85,000 seal pups and 6,000 bulls. Cape fur seals live in permanent colonies on land, and the pups suckle from their mothers for 12 months, forming an intense bond. Sealers invade the colony and the terrified seals are herded in-land in groups and clubbed to death. Many pups die in shock or from heat or suffocation. Others die of starvation when they become separated from their mothers in the mayhem of the slaughter and are too young to obtain their own food. The established colonies are continually fleeing for safer ground.
Because the seals have been forced to flee the offshore islands due to past sealing, 25% of the pups are killed by jackals attacking colonies on the mainland. Another 19% die of other causes before the seal cull even begins. The annual slaughter literally wipes out the remaining population of pups as well as causing an extreme disturbance in the functioning of the colony as a whole. If the slaughter continues, nearly one million seals will be killed until 2019 providing the seal population does not collapse first.
"An informative and encouraging review of the campaign to abolish Canada's inherently cruel commercial seal hunt."
- Bridget Curran, Director Atlantic Canadian Anti-Sealing
"Watson gives a no-holds-barred inside look at why the hunt continues and how we can stop it."
-Alice Bruckenstein
Composer and lyricist of
Song for Canada's Harp Seals
"Seal Warriors"
Captain Paul Watson, Founder, Executive Director of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society will be a Featured Guest of WFL Endangered Stream Live, Talk Radio for Animal Protection. Watson will address the importance of preserving the harp seals and current state of affairs regarding the Canadian Seal Hunt during this special segment entitled, “Seal Warriors”.
The Premier will broadcast to an international audience on Saturday, April 25th, 2009.
The WFL Endangered Stream Live chat room will be open.
Special Guest Call-Ins with Nigel Barker, Ian Roichaud and Bridget Curran.
Please listen and take action to help.
Hosted by Katia Louise with WFL Contributor, Amanda Daniel and DivaVega live in the chat room as the Coordinator for Simulcast Discussions.
The Premiere of Seal Warriors airs on Saturday, April 25th 3PM (PST)/ 6PM (EST). Listen and participate to show your support for Captain Watson and the baby seals. Participate in the chat:
Yes! Yes! Despite Canada and Norway's threats to take the 27-nation bloc to the World Trade Organization if it moved to ban seal product imports, the European MPs have voted over-whelmingly for a ban on the trade in seal products across Europe con-demning theslaughter of seals as "inherently inhumane". 5/5/09
Canada's annual commercial seal slaughter started on Monday. We may not be able to take our confiscated vessel Farley Mowat to the ice floes, but we are able to continue our public opposition by partnering with LUSH Cosmetics to expose the slaughter for what it is: cruel and unsustainable. While we mourn the loss of the seals this week to the sealer's clubs, we find optimism in the growing worldwide opposition and the impending European Union ban vote which could see the harp seal slaughter ended once and for all.
To the dismay of animal lovers around the world, the annual Canadian seal slaughter resumed this week, and at an increased quota. Therefore, with the goal of bringing the world's attention to this atrocity, Sea Shepherd is proud to announce a new partnership with LUSH Cosmetics to oppose the commercial hunt, which kills over 250,000 baby harp seals each spring.
Sea Shepherd Launches Successful Partnership with LUSH Cosmetics to Stop the Commercial Seal Slaughter
To the dismay of animal lovers around the world, the annual Canadian seal slaughter resumed this week, and at an increased quota. Therefore, with the goal of bringing the world's attention to this atrocity, Sea Shepherd is proud to announce a new partnership with LUSH Cosmetics to oppose the commercial hunt, which kills over 250,000 baby harp seals each spring. (Full story)
Message from Rebecca Aldworth March 26th
After the sealing vessels left yesterday, we landed on the ice to document the aftermath. We passed one pup who had crawled into a small cave formed by ice. He hid his head as we approached, clearly terrified. I tried to talk softly to him, to let him know that it would be okay. But he just lay there, hiding his head.
This 3-week-old seal pup had just seen hundreds of others beaten to death in front of him. To him, people now mean clubs and violence and pain.
Please, help save seals from the clubs of sealers: Make an emergency donation today.
It took less than three days for sealers to slaughter 19,200 seal pups. The ProtectSeals team was there to document as they killed virtually every seal in sight -- just to produce fur coats that no one needs.
Tomorrow, the killing starts again, and the team is readying to fly to the remote area where this next phase will occur. Please be a part of our team. Please help sustain our work on the ice to save these seals.
We need to show the world that the carnage is worse than ever -- and that despite the Canadian government's promises, the hunt is as cruel and merciless as ever.
Thank you for standing with us. Having so many of you behind us at home makes all the difference.
Sincerely,
Rebecca Aldworth
Director of Canadian Wildlife Issues
The Humane Society of the United States
Gucci
685 Fifth Ave.
New York, NY 10022
212-750-5220
clientservice-europe@gucci.it
Versace
Donatella Versace
Versace S.P.A. Headquarters
Via Manzoni, 38
Milan ITALY 20121
Phone: 39 02 76 09 31
Fax: 39 02 76 00 41 22
Thousands of excess pelts are stacked in warehouses throughout eastern Canada and Norway. Norway subsidizes the cost of storage of these pelts.
Seal pelts are sold in Canada, Europe, Asia, and possibly other parts of the world, but they are not sold in the United States due to the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The Canadian government is currently developing plans to subvert this treasured environmental protection through such measures as appeals to the World Trade Organization and NAFTA boards.
For the first time since 2005, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has sent its ship, the Farley Mowat north into the ice packs off Eastern Canada to defend baby harp seals from the ruthless clubs of Canadian sealers. The Sea Shepherd ship,with an international crew of volunteers, will once again act as shepherds in defence of the harp seal pups in the ice packs of the Gulf of St. Lawrence this year.
Canadian Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn has set this year’s quota at 275,000 harp seals to be killed, 5,000 higher than last year, without any scientific justification and without any market justification. In announcing the new quota Hearn said that the seal slaughter has been improved with new rules to make the hunt more “humane.” The new rules are being imposed in an attempt to convince the European Parliament to not ban seal products into Europe. Canada is spending a small fortune in sending delegations to Europe to plea for the right to continue to massacre seal pups. The new rules call for the sealers to sever the arteries of seals under their flippers after they have been shot or clubbed. In total over 325,000 seals are being targeted this year.
Sea Shepherd has been working to remove the markets for seal products as well as mounting dramatic confrontations on the ice to physically save the seals from the cruel clubs of the sealers. The seal hunt survives only because of subsidies doled out to the sealing industry by the government of Canada. It has become a glorified welfare scheme where in return for killing seals for a few weeks the sealers can qualify for unemployment insurance for the rest of the year. (more)
"Opposition to the use of public funds to support sealing was highest in Quebec (72%) and Vancouver (72%), with “strong” opposition to government funding in Vancouver polling at 7 points above the national average." 2009 IFAW
EU BAN!
What's Next?
With government subsidies still in hand, the sealing industry will be chasing down new markets. The ProtectSeals campaign is working to convince all targeted nations to follow the EU’s example.
We’re keeping the pressure on the Canadian fishing industry and government with the global boycott of Canadian seafood products. Since the boycott began, the Canadian fishing industry has suffered a $750 million (CAD) drop in the value of snow crab exports alone to the United States.
Canadian Senator Mac Harb has introduced his nation’s first bill to end the hunt. The ProtectSeals campaign is striving to convince other members of Canada's Parliament to support the bill.
Yes, there is still much to do- But for the moment, please join me in celebrating this historic victory. Thank you for fighting alongside me to make this day possible. The seals could not ask for stronger allies.
Sincerely,
Rebecca Aldworth
Director of Canadian Wildlife Issues
The Humane Society of the United States
Updates from Sheryl Fink, IFAW
March 28: We observed one boat hunting off the Magdalen Islands, DFO estimates 1000 beautiful seal pups were slaughtered.
It was such a beautiful sunny day on the ice it made the killing all the more horrific. The pups were lying on the ice sunning themselves, rolling on their backs, sleepy and lazy from the heat. The sealers easily walked right up to them and clubbed them with their hakapiks while we watched in horror, cameras running. The sealers sang and whistled as they worked the ice pans, casually clubbing any pup they came across. It was sickening.
The provincial police were on the ice as well, keeping a close eye on us, ready to charge us for any infraction of our observation licences.
DAY THREE: "We are at day 3 of the seal hunt here. They had nearly reached the region's quota early this morning with 17,200 killed and as of 10AM over 20,000 pups may be dead. 3/25
9500 baby seals killed on 1st day of the hunt. 3/24
WFL ENDANGERED STREAM LIVE
"Seal Warriors"
PREMIERE APRIL 25TH
“As guardians of nature in the stewardship of our planet, our endowment of intellect and creative talents are gifts to humankind that should be used for the benefit of all living creatures"
-Katia Louise, Exec Dir. Wild for Life Foundation, Inc, Host, WFL Endangered Stream Live
Cape Fur Seals
For 140 days, staring July 1st, the Namibian government permits the killing of about 85,000 nursing baby Cape Fur seals...on the pretext of creating employment for 120 unskilled workers living in cardboard shacks near the seal colony.
Francois Hugo of Seal Alert-SA has set-up private Seal Rescue and Rehabilitation facilities in Hout Bay Harbour over the past 10 - years. Its is self-funded.
Each year I try to take in a select group of babies from different effected seal colonies, in order to further and pioneer the ability to successfully raise a group of babies in order to eventually establish the means of re-populating these extinct seal islands.
-Francois Hugo
Take Action:
1. Sign Petition to End over 600 years of clubbing Cape Fur Seals
2. Sign Petition to Bans Guns from Sea and Save Fur Seals of Africa
3. Boycott South African seafood (including S. African squid, pilchards, tuna, lobster, hake, abalone, mackerel, monk fish). Look for 'Product of South Africa' labels in the U.S.
ABOUT SEALS ALERTS SA
“Seal Alert-SA was established in 1999, as a direct hands-on organization to address the imbalances, cruelty and abuse that has plagued this species for well over 600 years. Our primary roles are investigation, rescue and in the wild rehabilitation, free of all forms of confinement. Our ultimate goal is the re-establishment of the ecology path, this species has been diverted away from. We seek an effective and meaningful, protected natural balanced marine environment, that is not based on unnatural animal segregation or exclusion policies or over protection of one species to the detriment of another”. Francois Hugo
"Namibia now remains the only country on earth to round up nursing baby seals still suckling on their mother's milk, driving them in-land away from the safety of the sea, and as they attempt to flee alongside their mothers back to its safety are clubbed and stabbed to death by rows of as many as 100 part-time migrant workers - everyday between July 1 and November 15, each year. Vomiting up their mother's milk as they slowly die. On just two mainland seal colonies where 75% of this species unnaturally remains. Where the Namibian government grants 3 sealing concession holders the right to club these protected wildlife seals to death."
Contents and Images from Sea Shepherd with permission from Paul Watson and Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
Photo Credits: Sea Shepherd, Nigel Barker, Harpseals.org, Greg Hager, Bridget Curran, Seal Alert- SA
Special Thanks to Sea Shepherd, Harpseals.org, HSUS, IFAW, Nigel Barker, Atlantic Canadian Anti-Sealing Coalition & Seal Alert-SA, Alice Bruckenstein, Lora Lee Ecobelli and Leo Burmester
In 2005, the Sea Shepherd flagship Farley Mowat sailed to the ice floes of Eastern Canada and had a successful campaign although we did not stop the seal slaughter. What we did do was to elevate international public and media awareness of the slaughter. The Canadian government was forced on the defensive.
The Canadian government states that they do not subsidize the "hunt." Our documentation has exposed this lie - time and again, we witnessed the Canadian Coast Guard ships breaking ice and leading sealing ships through the floes to get to the seal nurseries. [see Parade of Fools for more information]. Also, during bad weather, the Coast Guard were extremely busy rescuing sealers whose ships became locked in the ice.
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society was formally incorporated in the United States in 1981 in the state of Oregon. Previous to this, the idea of Sea Shepherd was formed when Captain Paul Watson founded the Earth Force Society in 1977 in Vancouver BC, Canada. The original mandate of both organizations was marine mammal protection and conservation with an immediate goal of shutting down illegal whaling and sealing operations, but Sea Shepherd later expanded its mission to include all marine wildlife.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society will be billing the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans $1,000.00 per day for every day that the Farley Mowat is unlawfully held by the department.
On March 19, 2009, Captain Paul Watson spoke at the LUSH Georgetown store in Washington, D.C., where the store staff also dressed like pirates. That evening Captain Watson attended the Environmental Film Festival in Washington, D.C. to introduce the screening of At The Edge of the World about Sea Shepherd's 2006/07 Whale Defense Campaign Operation Leviathan, and LUSH store employees distributed postcards for signature to those attending the screening. Over 300 people attended. As stated by Captain Watson, "Sea Shepherd is extremely grateful to LUSH for their efforts to bring this issue into the spotlight. After witnessing the cruel slaughter of seals first hand and devoting most of my life to bringing it to an end, I am hopeful that the increased public awareness through the LUSH campaign for the seals will aid the efforts by those of us working to stop this barbaric practice once and for all."
On March 24, 2009, the LUSH store in Vancouver on Robson Street hosted another event to continue spreading awareness about the need to end the commercial hunt on the east coast of Canada. LUSH North American co-owner Karen Wolverton personally attended the event and showed her support for the seals by courageously having her body painted red and lying in the middle of a Canadian flag replica. Several media outlets documented the event and many pedestrians stopped to sign petition postcards as well. Sea Shepherd's Media Manager, Amy Baird, was able to attend to support LUSH and speak to the media about the need to end the commercial hunt. 
Sincerely,
“As guardians of nature in the stewardship of our planet, our endowment of intellect and creative talents are gifts to humankind that should be used for the benefit of all living creatures" 
