Seal hunt numbers won’t grow from last year: minister
The number of harp seals off the East Coast has continued to climb, but may have reached an apex, marking the start of a possible decline in the population.
Population figures released Thursday by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans will shadow the scientific debate about how many of the animals the government will allow sealers to catch, but the numbers are likely to stay steady from last year.
Fisheries Minister Keith Ashfield said Thursday that the total allowable catch for harp seals will probably roll over from last year, meaning that sealers will be allowed to catch up to 400,000 harp seals.
Still, there remains a cloud over the seal hunt, this time an economic question: Can sealers make enough money given some of the largest markets, such as Russia, have closed their doors to Canadian seal products?
“It’s a great product and we just have to get those market places opened,” Ashfield said.
Opposition parties were skeptical that those markets would make a difference, and called on the government to do more for sealers on a day that federal politicians of all stripes signalled their support for the seal hunt by donning seal fur ribbons on their lapels.
Liberal MP Scott Simms, who wore a seal fur bow tie into the House of Commons on Thursday, said he had little faith the government could open new markets, such as China. “They’ve been talking about it for years, and we’ve seen nothing,” Simms said.
The financial future of the seal hunt was put in question after the European Union and Russia banned the import of Canadian seal products. The government is fighting the EU ban at the World Trade Organization, but has not said what it plans to do with Russia.
Russia was the largest market for seal products, purchasing up to 95 per cent of seal product exports.