I don't know if you had already read it:
Quebec MP's sealskin portfolio a hit
Last Updated: Tuesday, November 3, 2009
CBC News
A sealskin-covered folder given to a Quebec MP by Iqaluit Mayor Elisapee Sheutiapik has made national headlines and even moved other politicians to ask where they can get their own.
Sheutiapik gave the portfolio to Quebec Conservative MP Steven Blaney a couple of years ago while she was attending a political event in Quebec City.
The folder resurfaced Sept. 16 when anti-sealing protesters interrupted question period at the House of Commons. At that point, Blaney stood up in the Commons and held up the folder as a show of support for the Canadian seal hunt.
The Lévis-Bellechasse MP's gesture garnered applause and prompted a rare display of solidarity from the opposition benches. Some MPs then asked him where they could get a similar accessory.
"All the House … stood for this, I would say, principle of democracy, and also for the principle of defending the seal industry," Blaney told CBC News. "Since then, I received many calls and requests to get those great portfolios."
Blaney, who said he proudly carries his sealskin folder every day and recently wrote to Sheutiapik to ask how other members can get their own folder.
"When there's a high-profile visit or meeting, we usually give them these sealskin portfolios as a 'thank you' and we also realize that these are gifts that are not going to be forgotten. And here's a prime example," Sheutiapik said.
Blaney said some MPs have suggested presenting sealskin folders as gifts whenever a European parliamentarian comes to Ottawa.
The European Union banned the import of seal products from Canada and other sealing countries earlier this year. The ban exempts seal items derived from traditional Inuit hunts, but sealers in Nunavut have expressed concern that it would still hurt their livelihoods.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2009/11/03/seal-folder.html
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/727259--parliamentary-restaurant-to-serve-seal-meat
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and cabinet members eat seal meat in Iqaluit Aug. 18, 2009 to show support for Canada's seal industry.
JASON RANSOM, PMO HANDOUT/REUTERSOTTAWA–Governor General Michaëlle Jean declared it to be "absolutely delicious."
To others it is absolutely disgusting, not to mention morally reprehensible.
Members of Parliament and senators soon will be able to decide for themselves when seal meat comes to their swishy private restaurant on Parliament Hill.
"I think it's going to be an attractive addition to the menu when it's available," said Quebec Liberal MP Marcel Proulx, a spokesman for the Board of Internal Economy, which oversees administration of the parliamentary precinct.
The board, made up of MPs from all parties, was first asked to add seal meat to the restaurant's menu in 2008 by senators wanting to show support for the small commercial seal hunt as Canada stared down a European Union trade ban that was adopted this year.
The only problem was finding a reliable supplier of seal meat. Most firms still involved in the hunt make their money from furs sold to Russia and China, and from seal oil, a source of omega-3 fatty acids that help in a child's brain development and can reduce the risk of heart disease later in life.
The board was approached again in June by Bloc Québécois MP Michel Guimond after the EU ban passed. This time they located a supplier in the Magdalen Islands, a tiny outpost off the southeast coast of Quebec's Gaspé Peninsula.
The Magdalen Islands seal hunt, one of less than half a dozen centres for the annual cull, begins in March, meaning parliamentarians could be feasting on the traditional dish in the early spring of 2010.
"The harp seal that they are talking about and are so excited about, it tastes horrible," said Liberal Senator Mac Harb, a former municipal politician in Ottawa.
He said he was told by people who have tried seal that it tastes bad, but has not tried it himself.
"If they were to do this, it would be important for them to take a leadership role and have a feast first before any other members of Parliament so they can see first-hand how tasty it is. I'm sure they'll conclude quite quickly it's not edible."
Whether it be seal flipper, brain or heart that is turned into scallopini or stir fry by House of Commons executive chef Judson Simpson, the decision is sure to attract protest.
For months, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has posted its activists outside the Prime Minister's Office dressed in a harp seal costume, complete with sad black eyes, perky whiskers and velvet fur. The group is urging Canada to put the 7,000 or so remaining seal hunters out of their industrial misery.
"It's a very peculiar disturbing cruelty unique to Canada and it's just bizarre when a country like Canada, which is known for so many advanced policies in the social realm, would be so stuck in the dark ages about their support for such a hideous cruelty," said Dan Mathews, PETA's Virginia-based vice-president.
On Wednesday, the group will launch a 24-city seal hunt protest in Halifax by inflating a four-metre-high harp seal along the Olympic torch route.
In the last few years, the price that seal hunters can get for their catch has plummeted to about 50 cents per pound from about $1.25 per pound, said Frank Pinhorn, executive director of the Newfoundland and Labrador branch of the Canadian Sealers Association. The EU ban, which the federal government intends to challenge before the World Trade Organization, has further depressed the industry.
The decline of the commercial seal hunt also hurts the traditional Inuit seal hunt, which is not subject to the EU ban, because the remote Inuit communities often don't have the means or resources to market their products throughout the world, Pinhorn said.
Liberal Senator Céline Hervieux-Payette, a vocal supporter of the seal hunt, has urged the government to give financial support to seal hunters until the WTO challenge is completed. Harb says the government should put up money to help hunters transition to "serious jobs, real jobs."
"The way we are doing it now it's almost like we are reacting because we don't know what to do," he said.
Thanks to lower prices this year there has been a renewed demand for seal products, particularly in China, and any extra help to promote the product by the federal government is welcomed by the industry.
"It sends a message to the Europeans in particular ... that the seal harvest here is alive and well, and we're going to promote it and develop it. I'm very pleased with it," Pinhorn said.
The Governor General kicked off the collective Canadian chest-thumping when she cut open a seal carcass at a ceremony in the Nunavut community of Rankin Inlet last spring and tasted the animal's raw heart.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his cabinet also ate seal meat in solidarity with hunters at a cabinet meeting this summer in Iqaluit, and the House of Commons passed a motion recently urging the Canadian Olympic Committee to incorporate seal skin into the official uniform of the upcoming Vancouver Games. The COC rejected the suggestion out of fear it would politicize the athletic event.
Adding seal to the menu on Parliament Hill is also more symbol th
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Animals
Cal
- 12 hours ago - news.bbc.co.uk
By DAVID JACKSON Provincial Reporter
A trio of protesters interrupted MLAs at Province House at about 5 p.m. today, delaying debate while a police officer, a commissionaire, and the sergeant-at-arms removed them from the building.
The issue was the Dexter government's legislation to allow seal hunters into a protected wilderness area in Cape Breton.
"Respect our protected wilderness areas, which belong to all Nova Scotians. Thanks very much and have a great day," Bridget Curran said as she was escorted from the public gallery.
She and two others displayed signs from the gallery, but such demonstrations are against House rules. Speaker Charlie Parker asked sergeant-at-arms Ken Greenham to remove the protesters.
Ms. Curran, a spokeswoman for the Atlantic Canadian Anti-Sealing Coalition, said allowing a commercial hunt on Hay Island, part of the Scaterie Island protected wilderness area, opens the door to possibly allowing other types of commercial activity in other areas.
"I think Bill 50 sets a very dangerous precedent and it's only a matter of time before other commercial industry lobbyists such as from the mining industry and the lumber industry lobby the government for access onto other protected space," she said outside the legislature.
Mr. Greenham banned the three protesters from the House for 90 days.
MONTREAL — Canada filed an official complaint Monday at the World Trade Organisation against a European Union ban on imported seal products, saying it violated trade rules.
Foreign ministers in Brussels adopted in July a ban on seal products from Canada, ruling the goods could not be marketed in the 27 EU nations.
In a letter sent to the European Union and the WTO, Canada said the move was "inconsistent with the EC's (European Commission's) obligations" under international trade rules.
Ottawa was therefore calling for consultations with Brussels on the issue, according to a copy of the letter seen by AFP.
Under WTO rules, if both sides fail to resolve their dispute within 60 days of consultations, Canada can ask the organisation to make a ruling.
Canada's largest Inuit organisation, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, praised the government's action.
Mary Simon, the organisation's president, said she told the European Union that an exemption on Inuit products was "useless because once the market is eliminated for seal products, it is eliminated for Inuit products as well."
The International Fund for Animal Welfare, however, derided the Canadian action, arguing that it would cost the government more to protect the industry than it generates each year.
"Apparently the sky's the limit when it comes to bailing out special interests like commercial seal clubbing," said Sheryl Fink, a researcher with the animal protection group.
"There seems to be no end in sight to the use of Canadian's tax dollars to try and keep the sinking sealing industry afloat," she said.
Around 6,000 Canadians take part in seal hunting each year along the Atlantic coast.
Ottawa authorizes the slaughter of 338,000 seals per season and says the survival of the species is not in danger.
Seal hunters cashed in about 10 million dollars from the 2009 hunt, Canadian Trade Minister Stockwell Day said in July, adding that 25 percent of the sales usually come from exporting products to Europe.
Canada, Greenland and Namibia kill 60 percent of the 900,000 seals slain each year. Other seal-hunting countries include Norway, Iceland, Russia and the United States.
An inflatable giant seal set by IFAW in front of the European Parliament in Strasbourg
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Animals
Cal
- 1 day ago - enn.com
A federal judge on Friday approved a settlement between the Center for Biological Diversity and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration requiring the agency to decide whether ice-dependent ringed, bearded, and spotted seals deserve legal protection under the Endangered Species Act. Under the settlement, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration must make a finding on whether listing is warranted for the spotted seal by October 15, 2009 and for the ringed and bearded seals by November 1, 2010.
In May 2008 the Center filed a petition to protect the ice-dependent ringed, bearded, and spotted seals under the Act due to threats from global warming and increasing oil development in their habitat. In September 2008, the agency found that the three seal species may deserve Endangered Species Act protection, but it has subsequently failed to make a decision on whether the species warrant legal protection within the one-year deadline provided by the statute...
13
Science & Tech
Dee
- 3 hours ago - wten.com
George Orwell Would Understand
The final verdict was delivered today in the Canadian government’s case against Sea Shepherd Captain Alex Cornelissen of the Netherlands and 1st Officer Peter Hammarstedt of Sweden.
Both men were denied the right to attend their own trial in April 2009 because they had been deported and were not allowed to return to Canada to appear in their defense.
Despite this, the Court in Nova Scotia proceeded with the trial, hearing only the testimony of the Crown Prosecutor.
Judge Jean Whalen ruled in July that both men were “guilty” of two counts each of approaching within 926 meters of a seal hunt. They were each fined $11,607 on each count for a total of $45,000.
It’s hard to believe, but for the “crime” of witnessing and documenting the slaughter of seal pups Alex and Peter have been given fines totaling $45,000.
$45,000 for a non-felony violation of regulations by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans for simply witnessing the slaughter of baby seals!
The photographs taken of brutality against the seals appear to be the most expensive photographs ever taken of a wildlife slaughter.
These fines are far higher than any fines received by poachers or for seal quota violations.
The verdict in not surprising, however, from a country that has a government pathologically fixated on supporting the seal slaughter industry at all costs. We have already had the disturbing coverage of Governor General Michelle Jean eating a raw seal heart on national television and Prime Minister Stephen Harper chowing down on a seal meat lunch to prove he’s in solidarity with the baby killers of Newfoundland and the Maganderthal Islands of Quebec.
The Judge was hysterically over dramatic in her judgment, stating that, “Their behavior was so egregious it caused seasoned veterans of the sea to fear for their lives.”
It is an amusing image. Picture big, tough, grizzled Nufie sealers cowering in abject fear before a boatload of vegetarians.
That statement alone is worth the fine imposed on our courageous officers for their efforts to expose the atrocities committed on the ice floes against the baby seals.
The court also cited the contempt shown to the Fisheries Officers when Peter Hammarstedt replied to a demand to show a permit to approach the seal hunt and said over the radio, “Permit? I don’t need no stinking permit.”
Apparently the court was unaware of that famous line by Alfonso Bedoa in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. The Judge was not amused.
The Canadian Court Conspiracy to Cater to Cowards
“There is no doubt that this sentence was politically motivated,” said Captain Paul Watson. “The Department of Fisheries and Oceans wanted their heads and the orders were clear – deny the defendants an opportunity to appear in their own defense and then throw the book at them.”
Both men were arrested outside the Canadian twelve-mile limit when a paramilitary RCMP SWAT unit forcefully boarded the Farley Mowat in April 2008 to seize all documentation that the Sea Shepherd crew had recorded of the cruelty against the seals inflicted by sealers. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society was gathering documentation to present as evidence to support the then proposed European Parliament ban on seal products.
Not all of the documentation was seized. Captain Paul Watson was able to remove some of evidence from the ship when the Farley Mowat docked in the French Islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon just south of Newfoundland. Despite a violent assault on the Farley Mowat by French fishermen, Captain Watson along with Chief Cook Laura Dakin eluded the mob and departed by airplane before word reached the fishermen to intercept them at the airport. Other digital cards were smuggled off the ship hidden in the person of the other eighteen crew detained but not arrested.
The fines will not be paid because both Sea Shepherd officers hold the opinion that they were denied their right to a trial.
"I remain proud of our actions in documenting the brutal Canadian baby harp seal slaughter. Ultimately, we won the battle in the court of international public opinion, so no sentence, no matter how Draconian, will convince me that my part in filming the brutal slaughter of harp seal pups was wrong. I know who the real criminals are - the barbarians who we filmed skinning seals alive contrary to the Marine Mammal Regulations. If Judge Whalen had any sense of justice at all, the seal killers who we documented engaged in their cruel practice would have been the ones to be fined and imprisoned, not the people taking the pictures,” said Peter Hammarstedt, the 1st Officer of the Farley Mowat.
Captain Alex Cornelissen responding from the Galapagos Islands said, “The Canadian government continues to take extreme measures to prevent people from exposing their most horrific secret, the largest marine wildlife slaughter on the planet. Boarding our Dutch registered vessel in international waters at gunpoint couldn’t prevent us from getting evidence to the European parliament that this so-called hunt is nothing short of a biological holocaust and the sealers, nothing but sadistic butchers. The amount of the fine is totally irrelevant as even a one million dollar fine would not impress us as we did nothing wrong, we are not the ones committing crimes against nature. And since we are inadmissible into Canada mentioning a jail sentence in lieu of a fine is nothing but a fina
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Two environmental groups are suing the federal government for refusing to list ribbon seals as endangered because of threats from global warming.
The Center for Biological Diversity and Greenpeace on Thursday sued the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in federal court in San Francisco.
Ribbon seals are found in the Bering and Chukchi seas off Alaska and the Sea of Okhotsk (o-KOTSK') off Russia.
From March through June, ribbon seals rely on loose pack ice in the Bering and Okhotsk seas for reproduction and molting, and as a platform for foraging.
NOAA officials rejected the listing petition in December. They said climate models project annual ice will continue to form for the seals each winter.
http://green.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090903/ap_on_re_us/us_ribbon_seals_lawsuit.html
Want to see a letter written by a blood soaked idiot - then this is the one for you.....
Helpfully he says they are killing seal pups (something the canadians hate being said) and would you believe it he reckons that if they dont stop killing seals th...en there will be no fish left!
This Robert DesRoches is such an idiot - lets hope he decides to club himself to death very soon!
Feel free to reply to his letter........I did
15
Animals
Cher
- 1 hour ago - thepetitionsite.com
Humane Society International and The Humane Society of the United States congratulated the Council of Ministers of the European Union for overwhelmingly endorsing a comprehensive prohibition on trade in products of commercial seal hunts. Twenty-four nations supported the ban, with only three abstaining. HSI and HSUS condemned the Canadian government for its ill-advised statements in response to the news, in which Canada threatened a World Trade Organization challenge should the ban proceed without an exemption for Canadian seal products.
"The European Union has ended its trade in seal products and its participation in one of the cruelest wildlife slaughters on Earth," said Rebecca Aldworth, director of HSI/Canada. "The overwhelming majority of Canadians supports this ban, and wants the slaughter to be ended for good."
In May 2009, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of a strong ban on seal product trade. Recent polling confirms most Canadians want the seal hunt to be ended (Environics Research 2008), wish the European Union to ban its trade in seal products (Pollara 2007) and oppose Canadian government retaliations against seal product trade bans through WTO (Environics Research 2008). Some analysts believe WTO threats related to the seal product trade ban could jeopardize an ongoing free trade negotiation between Canada and the EU.
"At a time when Canada and the EU are negotiating a free trade deal reportedly worth over $12 billion to Canadians, it is discouraging to see Canadian government officials make counterproductive threats of WTO challenge," stated Arlene McCarthy, former Chair of the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee of the European Parliament. "The ban is WTO compliant, and for Canada to suggest otherwise is misleading. The EU will vigorously defend the values of EU citizens within the WTO and within the free trade negotiations should any challenge be made."
Canada's commercial seal hunt is the largest slaughter of marine mammals on the planet. Canadian veterinary authorities have concluded that the seal hunt is inherently inhumane because of the environment in which it operates and the speed at which it must be conducted. In 2009, prices for seal products plummeted from more than $100 in 2006 to $15 this year. Most sealers chose not to participate in the seal hunt as a result of the low prices, and more than 250,000 seals survived the slaughter.
Animal protection groups hope to achieve a prohibition on commercial seal hunting in Canada. In 2005, a boycott of Canadian seafood products was launched in the United States to compel Canada's fishing industry to end the commercial seal hunt. To date, the ProtectSeals seafood boycott has gained the support of more than 5,000 establishments and 650,000 people.
-30-
Follow HSI on Twitter.
Humane Society International and its affiliate organizations together constitute one of the world's largest animal protection organizations — backed by 11 million people. HSI is creating a better future for animals and people through advocacy, education, and hands-on programs. Celebrating animals and confronting cruelty worldwide — On the web at hsi.org.
A $10-million fight to save $1-million hunt
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/a-10-million-fight-to-save-1-million-hunt/article1233282/
Canada is launching a trade challenge of Europe's ban on marketing seal products. But protecting the seal hunt's reputation in other markets, not selling fur to Europe, is what's really at stake.
The World Trade Organization challenge will cost millions to protect a hunt that brought in only about $1-million in seal pelts this recession year. And by far the majority of the retail fur market is in Russia and China, not the EU countries that set restrictions.
However, Canada's struggling seal industry views the WTO challenge as key to stopping the hunt's pariah image from spreading farther east to its main customers.
To the Canadian government, the trade challenge makes for good politics in coastal communities and will act as a deterrent against other actions that could affect trade.
Activists criticize the seal hunt as barbaric, but the Canadian government has accused them of spreading misinformation. “It is in our view inappropriate that a trade decision is taken which is not based on the science,” Trade Minister Stockwell Day said.
Lesley O'Donnell, Europe director of International Fund for Animal Welfare, suggested the EU ban would speed the hunt's end. “We expect the seal hunt to continue its inevitable decline over the coming years until it is wiped out once and for all.”
But while Canadian seal skins are often finished in Europe, there are plants elsewhere, and about 90 per cent of the consumer market is in Russia and China, said Rob Cahill, executive director of the Fur Institute of Canada.
“The markets are there outside of Europe to continue the hunt,” he said. “But if it goes unchallenged, it is a precedent that is allowable.”
The industry was already sliding, however. The annual pelt haul, usually between $5-million and $20-million, declined to about $1-million in 2009 after the recession slashed pelt prices to about $15, from a 2006 peak of $105.
A WTO challenge would likely take three years and cost $10-million, said McCarthy Tétrault trade lawyer Simon Potter.
But he thinks it's worth it. He believes the EU could not show the seal hunt is less humane than its own hunts and fur industries; but the final EU measure is more a ban on promoting seal products than importing them, so it violates WTO rules by creating different regulations for marketing seal fur and meat than for Europe's meat and fur.
“The dollars do not justify the [WTO] complaint. The principle justifies the complaint, either on a political level, or in sending a message to the EU generally,” he said.
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Animals
Maria
- 15 hours ago - news.yahoo.com
Katia Louise from WFL will be discussing the latest updates with Francois Hugo regarding the buyout of the Namibian Seal Hunt on Wed July 8th at 4 PM.
She has invited officials from IFAW, HSI, HSUS, OIPA, WSPA, Harpseals. org, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Antlantic Canadian Anti Sealing Coalition
Talking points will include the discussion of other possible alternatives with the objective for the panel to solve the issue and save the Namibia seals.
This will be a follow up to the previous interview with Francois which you can listen to here:
http://www.wflendangeredstreamlive.org/namibianseals.html
Please tune in to learn more.
http://wflendangeredstreamlive.blogspot.com/2009/07/saving-seals-of-namibia_07.html
On 1 July 2009, the Namibian seal cull of baby Cape fur seals will become the largest and cruelest seal hunt in the world. For the next 139 days seal clubbers in Namibia will beat to death 91,000 baby seals who are still suckling their mothers. These seal skin imports were banned in the US in 1972. Although the EU has banned Cape fur seal product imports in 2009, and met Namibian Prime Minister Nahas Angula in 2007, Namibia has vowed to go ahead with its baby seal cull.
I implore you to politely ask HATEM YAVUZ to issue a public letter to announcing he will no longer buy Namibian seal fur skins. Thank you very much. For the Seals
Francois Hugo Seal Alert-SA
CLICK & SEND A LETTER TO HATEM YAVUZ GROUP:
http://antifursocietyinternational.org/n_seals/seals.html
CLICK TO LEARN MORE ABOUT SEAL ALERT-SA http://sealalertsa.wordpress.com/
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Environment
Claudia
- 47 minutes ago - oceansentry.org
21
Animals
Maria
- 10 hours ago - nydailynews.com
8
Animals
Phrend
- 16 minutes ago - cbc.ca
Animals
Joanna
- 14 minutes ago - wflendangeredstreamlive.org
Canada's annual seal hunt has ended with only a quarter of the quota of seals being caught.
The quota had been set at 273,000, but fishermen in Newfoundland and Labrador, eastern Canada, took some 70,000 seals.
They blame plummeting prices for seal pelts and an impending European Union ban on seal products, which is expected to come into effect in October.
Some local fishermen are wondering if this could be the beginning of the end for the centuries-old practice.
Uphill battle
Many hunters from fishing communities in eastern Canada, did not even bother taking their boats out for this year's seal hunt.
The market price for a seal pelt is about $12, a steep decline from a peak of $100 a pelt a few years ago.
The depressed value of the Russian Rouble and the subsequent erosion of one of Canada's largest markets for seal products, is partially to blame for the decline in numbers.
China is another major customer, also reeling from the global recession.
But it is clear that the prospect of a EU ban on seal products and growing international disdain for the hunt is becoming a major factor in its near collapse.
The European Parliament passed the ban in May, but it still needs the backing of EU governments. That is expected to be a formality.
Canadian fisheries officials admit that they have an uphill battle in what has become an emotional international debate.
Animal rights groups have successfully campaigned for decades against the seal hunt.
The annual kill has been a source of critical seasonal income for fishing communities already hit hard by dwindling fish stocks.
16
Animals
Paola
- 3 hours ago - sealalertsa.wordpress.com
The federal government today will significantly expand the critical habitat for endangered Hawaiian monk seals to include beaches and waters of the main Hawaiian Islands, officials said. Environmentalists say the added habitat is needed to reverse the plight of the monk seals, which are among the most endangered marine mammals in the world with fewer than 1,200 remaining and their numbers declining.
Previously, the critical habitat was limited to the remote and largely uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, where it was first established in 1986.
The announcement, to be published today in the Federal Register, is a result to a petition filed a year ago by the Center for Biological Diversity, Kahea: The Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance, and Ocean Conservancy.
A year ago, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries Service confirmed Caribbean monk seals were extinct. They were first discovered during Christopher Columbus' second voyage in 1494 and once had a population of more than 250,000. But they became easy game for hunters because they often rested, gave birth or nursed their pups on beaches. The last confirmed sighting was in 1952.
The Hawaiian monk seal population is declining at a rate of about 4 percent annually, according to NOAA. The agency predicts the population could fall below 1,000 in the next three to four years, placing the mammal among the world's most endangered marine species.
When the numbers of any species fall to such small numbers, the population gets unstable and are more vulnerable to threats like disease.
Most seals live in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, where they are struggling. Seal pups have only about a one-in-five chance of surviving to adulthood.
About 80 to 100 seals live in the main Hawaiian Islands, where they have higher survival rates. Scientists believe the main islands provide better foraging conditions because there are fewer seals and less competition for prey. Monk seals prefer small eels, wrasses and other prey not commonly sought by humans. Additionally, habitat in the main islands will provide a refuge for monk seals as important beaches where seal pups are born and raised have been lost in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands due to sea-level rise and erosion.
(From starbulletin.com, Hawaiian Islands, By Gary T. Kubota)
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Environment
In A Mirr
- 1 day ago - sealalertsa.wordpress.com
42
Environment
Claudia
- 41 minutes ago - theglobeandmail.com
http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/city/article/688694
Kudos to Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean and her plucky support for Canada's embattled seal hunt!
It's encouraging to see someone of influence standing up for the sealers whose livelihood is being endangered by the manipulation of European public opinion. Her simple gesture of participating in an Inuit seal ceremony could send a signal of enlightenment to the European Parliament, which recently voted to ban seal products.
I'm disappointed that so many well-meaning people have been taken in by the massive propaganda machine developed by the anti-sealing lobby, which I think has become a self-serving money machine. And I'm disappointed for the honest east-coast sealers and Inuit peoples, who are seeing their livings eroded.
Will the do-gooders sleep more happily in their beds knowing that fishermen won't be able to find markets for those floppy-flippered seals they harvest? The seals - not an endangered species by any measure - can gulp down more of our diminishing cod stocks while the fishermen and their families, whose markets are being snatched away, tighten their belts another notch.
From the beginning, the seal hunt controversy has been a staged affair. Photos and videos of a bloody abattoir on the ice have been powerfully exploited to build comfortable financial empires for some animal-rights groups. Uninformed celebrities have been lured into the campaign. In my view, the European Parliament and others are being misled.
If the seal hunt, engaged in for a few weeks by a few thousand Canadian fishermen, should be exterminated by this hypnotic attempt to torpedo its markets, what do you think the hyper-active animal rights organizations are going to do next?
If they can't get animal-sympathizers' money to save the seals, they're sure as heck going to be looking for another target to sustain their wealthy coffers. It's what they do. It's not about the seals. It's about money.
The scandal about all this is that so many nice old ladies, so many well-meaning animal lovers, so many decent people have been mesmerized into sending cash and bequests to organizations that thrive on this misplaced concern for big-eyed, fish-eating seals.
Their propaganda efforts might bring down a small sealing operation in Canada - with devastating effects on the fishermen who engage in it. But what about the real problems that affect real people in our world? Who's going to bat for them?
What about the Somalis, the Tamils, the people in the Middle East, those human beings whose lives are being tormented by ongoing strife? What about all the living babies in their mother's wombs whose lives are being targeted by the Morgentaler abortion campaign? Who's sending money to some well-heeled organizations to deal with real human problems?
Caring about animals with whom we share this world is fine and can even be noble. Caring about our fellow human beings is a much higher priority on my list.
The abundant seals have been traditionally "culled" in a regular fishing harvest. Other animals - cattle, pigs, sheep and chickens are slaughtered daily all over the world in abattoir operations that most humans condone. This human-animal relationship is all part of the life-cycle of nature. The anti-seal hunt movement has only become a modern cause because some people are making money out of it.
The once-a-year harvesting of predatory seals in a limited, controlled and monitored situation is no different than the slaughtering of beef cattle for our steaks or lobster for our plates. Why are people so sympathetic to seals and so indifferent to their legitimate balance-of-nature hunters? Because they've been duped.
Modern society - especially the well-meaning population in Europe, far away from where the seal hunt briefly takes place - has set itself up as the golden goose for an international cadre of money-making propagandists.
Fred Hazel is a retired editor-in-chief of this newspaper. His column appears on Thursday.
OUTRAGES !!!
Bad start of my day this morning,reading this news.Makes me sick to my stomach.Read,comment and forward please.Hope you have a good tuesday.Hugs Claudia *For the Oceans*
http://www.care2.com/news/member/228611102?sort=submitted
1
Governor General Eats Raw Seal Heart to Support Hunters
Environment
Claudia
- 6 minutes ago - canada.com
http://www.care2.com/news/member/228611102?sort=submitted
15
Animals
Claudia
- 1 hour ago - blogs.myspace.com
Sea Shepherd's Swedish First Officer, Peter Hammarstedt, is a great example of what to do while being interrogated.
Watch the included video ! Have a great weekend,hugs Claudia *For the Oceans*
http://www.care2.com/news/member/228611102?sort=submitted
2
Sea Shepherd - Nobody Talks, Everybody Walks
World
Claudia
- 1 minute ago - youtube.com
Photo courtesy of USFWS Legal Victory for Marine Wildlife Threatened by Oil Drilling
In a major victory, an appeals court has struck down the Bush Administration's controversial five-year plan for offshore drilling, which would have opened millions of acres off of the Alaskan coast to drilling—critical habitat for polar bears, walruses, and millions of migratory birds. Read more.
14
Animals
Stephanie
- 8 hours ago - theanimalrescuesite.com
23
Animals
Phrend
- 1 day ago - kintera.org
2
Animals
Claudia
- 16 minutes ago - blogs.myspace.com
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