National Post
Tue 14 Feb 2006
Byline: Melissa Leong

The Tory government should cancel the annual harp seal hunt on the east coast if the unseasonably warm weather causes insufficient ice for baby seals to survive, an animal-welfare group said yesterday.

Dr. David Lavigne, the International Fund for Animal Welfare science advisor and marine mammal expert, warned that Environment Canada is predicting continued above-normal temperatures in the coming month. This could put the more than 900,000 seal pups that are born in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador in late February and early March at risk of death.

"When ice fails to form, or is unusually thin, normal pupping and nursing is drastically affected and large numbers of newborn pups die," he said in a written release yesterday. "It makes no sense to hunt harp seals when it is obvious that a large percentage of the pups will die because of poor ice conditions."

He said harp seals depend on a stable ice platform to give birth and to nurse for 12 days; without regular feeding, the pups will not have the nutrients needed to survive. Ice platforms could also break down, dropping the pups into the ocean.

"If you hunt what's left, you could wipe out the entire year class," he said. "The pups that are produced this year will not show up in the breeding population for another five or six years. It's going to have an impact on the future size and productivity of the population."

Garry Stenson, research scientist with the marine mammal section at Fisheries and Oceans Canada, said the department is keeping a close watch on the situation.

"We've got a situation this year where there is not very good ice at all in the southern Gulf, the ice off of Newfoundland is marginal," he said. Ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where 25% of the seal pups are born, is at the lowest level he has ever seen.

However, the harp seals breed for a number of years, he said.
"Because the breeding population is spread over an number of years, one bad year is not going to be devastating to the population."

Without solid ice, the harp seals may give birth on the beach in Prince Edward Island, which is what they did in 1981, or some of the animals could swim to suitable ice in the northern Gulf of St.
Lawrence of Newfoundland, like they did in 1969, Mr. Stenson said.

He said the department takes into consideration the mortality rates of seals -- including those that die during the hunt and due to poor ice -- when it sets hunting quotas.

This year's quota has yet to be announced by the new government.
Last year's average quota was about 325,000 seals. A Conservative Party spokesperson could not be reached yesterday for comment.

Mr. Stenson said the Northwest Atlantic harp seal population has been holding steady since the mid-90s at about 5.8 million.