No more Seal hunts?
What? don'tcha read yer National Geographics no more?
http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0403/feature3/index.html
The Chill of the Hunt
Photograph by Brian Skerry
There's little physical friction these days out on the ice, where a hunter drags a dead seal to a boat. In years past, animal-welfare activists sparred with hunters over the killing of whitecoat pups. The activists prevailed: In 1983 the European Economic Community banned importation of the fur, and in 1987 Canada outlawed commercial hunting of pups. Now the Canadian government allows the harvesting of weaned and molted seals within established quotas, totalling 975,000 for the years 2003 to 2005.
>>>>>>>>>>
Today the fishing industry makes up 80 percent of the islands' economy. A thousand of the 13,000 islanders fish for a living, and a similar number process the catches of lobster, crab, herring, and mackerel.
Madelinot fishermen also remember the two decades of tribulation that began in the 1960s when antihunt campaigners, spearheaded by the International Fund for Animal Welfare and later by Greenpeace, triggered the eventual collapse of the seal trade. Portrayed as murderers and barbarians, fishermen suffered the contempt of the masses as television brought graphic scenes from the ice fields of the North Atlantic into the living rooms of Europe and North America.
_
Taking part in what had been known as the greatest hunt in the world—an enterprise that in the 19th century had involved more than 13,000 men and 400 sailing ships—was no longer a matter of pride but a mark of shame. Once hailed as "Vikings of the ice," the sealers were now the scum of the earth. The Madelinots' cries of Nous ne sommes pas des bouchers! —We are not butchers!—sounded hollow when accompanied by photographs of upraised clubs and bloodstained ice.
_
Jocelyn Thériault was a youngster when the protests peaked. Now 34, he owns a one-third share in a 65-foot (20-meter) fishing boat, Manon Yvon. He, his brother, and a cousin fish for snow crab and redfish. They used to fish for cod, too, but in April 2003 the North Atlantic cod fishery, which had failed to recover despite closures and dramatically reduced harvests, was shut down indefinitely by the Canadian government.
_
The demise of the cod industry has given renewed purpose to modern-day harp seal hunters: The livelihood of fishermen like Thériault depends on harvesting whatever the sea has to offer—including seals. Since 1987, when Canada outlawed commercial hunting for whitecoat pups, the main focus of the hunt has been molted pups known as beaters—so named because they tend to thrash the water when they swim, not because the traditional method of killing them is with clubs. Today beater pelts can be worth 40 Canadian dollars or more to a hunter.
_
I meet Thériault at the wharf in Cap-aux-Meules, the commercial center of the islands. He and his crew are loading supplies for the seal hunt, set to begin in a couple of days, ice permitting. Like all fishermen in this region, he can fish only eight months of the year because the coast is icebound through the winter. When he can't fish, he collects unemployment. With a 1.5-million-dollar boat to pay off, four months is a long time without significant income—and a long time to be ashore if your life is the sea.
Art got me to thinking about last year as my two sons and I were walking through the woods on the way back from a squirrel hunt. We didn't shoot any that particular day. A very young oppossum ran across the firelane and climbed to the tip of a sappling about eye level with my head...that's as far as the little bitty tree grew. Well, there we were, eye to eye. My double barrel 20 gauge was loaded w/ #6 shot . My eldest son's automatic was loaded with the same.
