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

A blood trail runs across the ice as sealers skin harp seals for their pelts in the Gulf of St. Lawrence near Iles-de-la-Madeleine, PQ, March 23, 2009. [Agencies]

But the hunt has overwhelming support in Canada. Earlier this year, Sen. Mac Harb introduced an anti-sealing bill, but he couldn't find a colleague in the 105-seat Senate willing to second his motion to send it to debate.

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"We have a humane, professionally run hunt," Department of Fisheries and Oceans spokesman Phil Jenkins said. This year's total allowable catch has been set at 280,000 seals, up from 275,000 last year.

But pressure on the hunt is growing. The United States has banned Canadian seal products since 1972. The Netherlands and Belgium also ban seal products, and Russia announced earlier this month it would ban the hunting of baby seals.

The European Union already outlaws the sale of the white pelts of baby seals.

A pup harp seal rests on the ice floes in 2008, off the coast of the Magdalen Islands, Quebec. [Agencies]

Registered hunters in Canada are not allowed to kill seal pups that haven't molted their downy white fur, typically when 10 to 21 days old.

The department estimates the total harp seal population at about 5.6 million.

Seals are also hunted in Namibia, Sweden, Finland and Russia.