Nfld. Seal hunt closed to large vessels; most of quota taken

[Guest guest]

[Don't forget to boycott all Canadian products! Call

the Canadian embassy's and let them know you will be

boycotting their products. The Canadian government has

subsidized the killing of over 320 thousand Seals in

the last three weeks, and over one million in the last

three years! This is so sick a thing it's even

impossible to comprehend it! Another place to boycott

would be 'Red Lobster' restaurants because they're the

biggest purchaser of Canadian seafood. Call the Red

Lobsters in your area and let them know you wont be

eating there anymore unless they stop buying from

Canadian sources, 'because of the Seal Slaughter'.

Rick.]

 

 

 

Nfld. seal hunt closed to large vessels; most of quota

taken

 

ST. JOHN'S, Nfld. (CP) - The annual East Coast seal

hunt is winding

down off the coast of Newfoundland.

 

Although a few small boats will continue to hunt seals

on the ice floes

off the northeast coast in the coming weeks, the bulk

of this year's

quota - about 210,000 - has been taken. The federal

Fisheries Department

closed the hunt to large boats Tuesday, after a

temporary closure

Monday to give officials time to tally the number of

seals taken so far.

 

" We're monitoring the catches daily, " said Larry

Yetman, the

department's staff officer for marine mammals.

 

" When they get close, we'll close. "

 

The hunt on the Front, as it is called, is the second

and largest of

two separate seal hunts that take place in Canada

every year.

 

The first hunt took place on the Gulf of St. Lawrence

near the Magdalen

Islands earlier this month.

 

The harvest on the Front, a remote area that is

difficult to reach even

by helicopter, took place without the protesters that

made the journey

to the Magdalen Islands to voice their opposition.

 

But that doesn't mean the second hunt took place

without controversy.

 

The Boston Globe issued an apology last week over a

front-page story it

published on the seal hunt.

 

Originally set to start April 12, the hunt was twice

delayed due to bad

weather.

 

But the Globe published a story last Wednesday - two

days before the

hunt actually opened.

 

The story, by Halifax freelance writer Barbara

Stewart, described in

grisly detail the scene of sealers " shooting seal cubs

by the hundreds,

as the ice and water turned red. "

 

The Globe retracted the story after it was contacted

by Canadian

Fisheries officials.

 

This year is the final season of a three-year federal

plan to allow

sealers to take a total of 975,000 seals - most of

them harp seals between

12 days and three months old.

 

The total catch limit for this season was just under

320,000.

 

More than 107,000 seals were harvested in the Gulf of

St. Lawrence.

 

Yetman said it is likely the quota will be taken in

full this year.

 

The Humane Society of the United States, an opponent

of the hunt, said

the federal Fisheries Department didn't do enough to

limit this year's

harvest.

 

The society has called for a boycott of Canadian

seafood products, and

says several U.S. purchasers of Canadian seafood have

joined in.

 

" The society is turning its attention to other major

U.S. seafood

purveyors, such as Red Lobster Seafood Restaurants,

the top American seafood

restaurant chain, to encourage the major leading

companies to join the

campaign, " the organization said in a news release.