Seal Clubbin In Canada
Go Seal Clubbing, But Keep it Sustainable and Humanely!
Why do we use this resource?
Natives:
- Part of their tradition and culture
- Been hunting for at least 4,000 years
- First Inuit boy makes his kill, their is a huge feast
- Main part of Inuit diet
- Use all parts of the seal, pelt for clothing, heart, meat, eyeballs for clothing, fat for fuel, etc
- 3% of seal hunt is from the Inuit seal hunt
- Seal meat is high in fat, protein, vitamin A, Vitamin B12 and iron
Commercial Seal Hunt:
- First commercial seal hunt in 1515, pelts transported to Seville from Uruguay
- Prior, seals hunted in Europe for over 10,000 years
- Initially seals were wanted worldwide, for clothing (hats, jackets, clothing in general
- Dangerous work however, as hundreds of Canadian sailors died in the prior to WWI, after the war the seal hunt became dominated by the Norwegians
- Industry only gains about $6 million profit a year in Newfoundland
- In the 1800's the seal population began to significantly decline, over half a million were being killed each year; due to the new huge ice breaker ships
- Provides Seal meat to countries world wide, also provides seal pelts for clothing and the fat can be used as oil
Clubbing of the Seals
The humane method of clubbing a seal to the back of its skull... a very effect method as you can see
World Trade Organization
Group in charge of the trading of seals internationally
Iniut
One of the first seal hunts that was caught by camera
How Seals Sleep With Half a Brain - 2013/03/02 - Pt. 6 by CBC Radio One
Impacts of Hunting Seals
- Seals eat Fish (Cod), so if there are less Seals then the Cod population can overpopulate the waters and over consume the natural resources in the Oceans
- Seal advocate groups say that Cod is not what Seals main diet is, so killing more seals will not make a difference (But their is no scientific proof of this)
- Again, harvesting seal products gives people seal pelts, seal oil, and meat
- Seals are a world wide trading commodity
- Seal meat is used mainly to feed other animals at farms, pet stores, etc. Only 2 countries (Taiwan and South Korea) bought seal meat for human consumption
- Seal oil also has many health benefits like Omega 3 and essential fatty acids
- Sealing represents 35% of a sealers income
2010 Canada Seal Hunt: Raw Footage from the Ice
Sustainable Seal Hunting
To keep the seal hunt to go on indefinitely, the government of Canada will have to gradually decrease the amount of seals that are hunted yearly and monitor the method that sealers use to kill the animals, to avoid scrutiny from animal rights groups. Also, the government will need to have a peer reviewed study to calculate the total seal population in Canada, and a peer reviewed study to find the most effect and least painful way to kill seals as well as to find out if less seals does in fact mean more Cod.
For the Inuit community, make sure that they continue to kill only as much seal as they need to survive according to their traditions and culture.
Defenseless Seal
A seal about to get hopelessly clubbed
Present day Inuits
Inuit men about to go for a hunt the 21st century way
Dead Seals
Hundreds of dead seals litter the grounds with blood and guts and carnage