HALIFAX – The quota for the harp seal hunt off Canada’s east coast this spring has been set at 400,000 animals by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

The total allowable catch for hooded seals will be 8,200, some of it rolled over from last year.

“We said we’d stay with what the scientists recommended,” said Frank Pinhorn, executive director of the Canadian Sealers Association. “They were recommending between 300,000 and 500,000 so we took the middle of the road.”

Pinhorn said the association expects an improvement in markets this year with sales as high as 120,000 pelts, roughly double last year’s figure of 68,000.

The industry is hoping that the Asian market, especially China, will increase its purchase of seal products, but Pinhorn said that might not happen for another year or two.

Fishermen in the Magdalen Islands are looking to collect seal heart valves for medical research and meat for the restaurant trade as part of the developmental quota allocation of 20,000 seals

“That’s there to allow for product development and market penetration, whatever you want to call it,” said Pinhorn. “But its for a limited time.”

Rebecca Aldworth, Canadian director of Human Society International, called the hunt irresponsible, claiming that this year’s numbers are the highest since quota management was introduced in 1971.

“It’s not supported by science. This is regional politics being played by (Prime Minister) Stephen Harper in advance of an election,” she said.

Aldworth said the lack of ice cover this year means a lot of seal pups will drown, underscoring the need to call off the hunt.

“What this will be in the Gulf of St. Lawrence is a slaughter of the survivors,” she said.

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Scientists call for experimental cull of 73,000 seals

Junk science and questionable political motives are behind a new federal report that calls for an experimental cull of 70 per cent of the grey seals in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence, a leading critic of Canada’s annual seal hunt says.

Rebecca Aldworth, Canadian director of Humane Society International, was reacting Wednesday to the release of a science advisory report that says Ottawa should consider a five-year study that would start with the slaughter of 73,000 grey seals in an area stretching from eastern New Brunswick to Cape Breton, N.S.

The study, produced by the Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat, says the experiment would determine whether significantly reducing the grey seal population in the Gulf would help cod stocks recover from a drastic decline.

However, it also acknowledges there are such large gaps in research on the problem that a large-scale seal cull could just as easily lead to wiping out cod in the Gulf.

Calls to the Fisheries Department, which commissioned the study, were not returned Wednesday.

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