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Canada's controversial seal hunt starts
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-03-24 10:02

TORONTO -- Canada's annual seal hunt started Monday, under pressure from a possible European Union ban on imported seal products.

The world's largest marine mammal hunt was called "inherently inhumane" earlier this month by a European Parliament committee that endorsed the bill to ban the import of seal products to the 27-member union.

A sealer loads up a sled with harp seal pelts on an ice floe in the Gulf of St. Lawrence near Iles-de-la-Madeleine, PQ, March 23, 2009. [Agencies]

Animal rights groups say the hunt is cruel, difficult to monitor and ravages the seal population. But sealers and Canada's Fisheries Department says the hunt is sustainable and humane, and brings extra money to isolated fishing communities.

Fishermen sell seal pelts mostly for the fashion industry, as well as blubber for oil. The hunt exported around $5.5 million worth of seal products such as pelts, meat, and oils to the EU in 2006.

More photos:
  Newfoundland coast begins annual harp seal hunt
  Canadian seal hunting
 Newborn harp seal pup on ice floe in Canada
Canadian politicians lobbied intensely to try to convince the European committee that the hunt is humane. The bill must be approved by the entire EU assembly and EU governments to become law, a move that could come as early as next month.

EU legal experts say the ban could violate world trade rules, and Canada has warned it could challenge a ban before the World Trade Organization.

The EU bill does grant an exemption to Canada's indigenous Inuit to continue to trade seal products for cultural, educational or ceremonial purposes.

Rebecca Aldworth, director of Humane Society International Canada, said the ban should prompt Canada to end the hunt altogether.

"It's clear to me that change is in the air," she said.

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