Seals lie on Ile Dorion Beach, a protected island of Les Iles-de-la-Madeleine, Que. on May 30, 2023.SEBASTIEN ST-JEAN/AFP/Getty Images
A Senate committee is calling for urgent action to protect and grow the Canadian seal harvest, including revoking the charity status of organizations that campaign against the industry.
An 80-page report from the Senate committee on fisheries and oceans, released Thursday, said the federal government has failed to adequately manage the seal population and neglected the industry. The seal industry cratered after the European Union banned exports of Canadian seal products about 15 years ago.
The 14-member committee studied the effect Canada’s seal populations are having on fisheries. The report concluded that Ottawa should develop a seal population management strategy within the next six months, expand research and develop international markets.
It added that persistent anti-sealing activism remains a major obstacle for the industry and called on the federal government to do more to counteract it. That includes, the report says, amending the Income Tax Act to ensure registered charities and non-profits that promote misinformation about the seal hunt have their tax-exempt status revoked.
“We don’t believe as a committee that we should be aiding and abetting any non-profit group or charity out there that is raising money and using a portion of that money to lie about seal harvesting in this country, to vilify the people who are making a living from it,” Senator Fabian Manning, chair of the committee, said in an interview.
A spokesperson from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said the Senate committee’s attempt to silence organizations that speak out against the “cruel commercial seal slaughter” should raise the alarm among all who value their freedom of expression.
“The Canadian government has failed to identify a new international market for seal products – so the chances of reviving this cruel and dying industry seem slim,” said PETA spokeswoman Catie Cryar.
She added that PETA wants to end the commercial seal harvest, which she described as “one of the largest massacres of marine mammals in the world.”
Finance Department spokeswoman Caroline Thériault said the ministry is reviewing the report and couldn’t speculate on whether any changes would be made.
The former Conservative government under Stephen Harper took steps to restrict the political activities of charities, and more recently the Alberta government under former premier Jason Kenney launched a public inquiry to target environmental groups that campaign against the oil sector.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) is responsible for licensing seal harvesters and they are obligated to be trained in what it refers to as the humane three-step killing process. This involves striking the animal on its head with a hakapik, club or firearm, checking to ensure the seal is dead or irreversibly unconscious, and then cutting an artery and bleeding the animal out before skinning it. Since 1987, it’s been outlawed to harvest seals with white fur.
The commercial total allowable catches set by DFO haven’t been hit in years, the report says. Only 1 per cent of the total allowable catch was landed for the grey-seal harvest and only 7 per cent was landed for the harp-seal harvest from 2018 to 2022.
“We’re losing expertise,” Mr. Manning said about the declining number of seal harvesters, processors of pelts and those working in the craft industry.
“We want to save this industry and I guess, in totality, the fishing industry so we need to address the sealing situation very quickly.”
Mr. Manning, from the small fishing community of St. Bride’s, N.L., said the future of rural coastal communities depends on proper management of the seals, which eat fish and seafood including cod – a fishery his province was built on before the 1992 moratorium.
“Whether we like it or not, we’re married to the ocean, therefore it’s so important to us that somebody begins to take us a bit more seriously in relation to what the seal populations are doing to our other fisheries. It’s long overdue,” he said.
The Senate committee’s report quotes several statistics that emphasize the impact seals can have on fish populations – including that an adult seal can eat 1,000 kilograms of fish and seafood a year.
The number of grey seals has increased by 30 times since the 1960s. The population, last surveyed in 2021, sits at 366,400. The harp-seal population is estimated at 7.4 million.
In a recent statement to The Globe and Mail, DFO spokesman Tomie White said grey seals are potentially affecting the health of fish stock and have been shown to have a negative impact on the recovery of the Atlantic cod in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence. He said grey seals have also been preying on other species such as white hake and winter skate.
Mr. White said the federal government has made significant investments aimed at maintaining and growing access to international markets for seal products.