Annual East Coast seal hunt starts amid ongoing court case and trade challenge

HALIFAX – The annual East Coast seal hunt starts Monday against a backdrop of ongoing trade and court challenges in Europe and renewed claims from animal welfare groups that the 400-year-old industry is dead in the water.

Rebecca Aldworth, executive director of the Canadian wing of Humane Society International, says only 15 boats have signalled their intention to take part in the hunt.

It typically focuses on harp seals off the northeast coast of Newfoundland.

Aldworth says with the market for seal products now closed in the United States, most of Europe and Russia, the commercial seal hunt is a shadow of what it once was, largely surviving on government subsidies.

However, the federal government has been steadfast in its support of the hunt, insisting that it is a humane, sustainable and an economically viable pursuit that is important to many coastal communities.

Meanwhile, the industry continues to push ahead with a court case in the European Union aimed at overturning an EU ban on seal products, and the federal government is appealing a recent World Trade Organization decision to uphold the ban.

Aldworth says her group and other animal welfare groups are suggesting the federal government should shut down the industry and cushion the economic impact by offering buyouts to about 6,000 licensed hunters.