HALIFAX, N.S. — The Department of Fisheries and Oceans says it's not considering a grey seal hunt on Sable Island, despite repeated calls from sealers and Nova Scotia's fisheries minister.

"It's not on a radar screen at this point, and there's nothing to indicate that it will be," said department spokesman Gus van Helvoort.

"Logistically, the challenges of going there are very significant, and it's not something we're willing to entertain at this point."

The bulk of the 300,000-strong seal herd in the region can be found around the remote island some 250 kilometres east of Halifax.

Robert Courtney, who's been hunting seals for the past 30 years, said the windswept spit of land is the best place for a productive, controlled harvest.

"There's a million dollars a year worth of product swimming away," said Courtney, 55, who lives in Dingwall, N.S.

Last year, the federal department set a total allowable catch of 12,000 grey seals, but only about 1,600 were taken. This year's quota hasn't been announced.

For the second consecutive year, the province has given sealers special permission to hunt grey seals on Hay Island, a tiny piece of land off Cape Breton that's protected as a wilderness area under provincial law.

But the hunt, which officially started Feb. 2 and runs until March 14, remains at a standstill. Sealers say their buyer's plant is in the midst of renovations and isn't ready to accept pelts.

Sealers are permitted to take 2,200 seals on Hay Island, compared with 2,500 last year. About 1,250 grey seals ended up being harvested from that hunt in 2008.

Given the global economic crisis, Courtney said not many people are buying a luxury item like fur, but he believes there's still room in the market for seal pelts.

The problem, he said, is the quota is too small to be lucrative from a buyer's standpoint.

"You have to have a lot of material to start doing coats," said Courtney, who's the president of the North of Smokey Fishermen's Association.

"It takes six skins to make a coat, if you've only got 1,000 to 1,500 (pelts), you're running out of raw material pretty fast."

It's the same issue when it comes to selling seal meat to mink and fox farms, he added.

Ron Chisholm, the province's fisheries and aquaculture minister, has long been pushing for a Sable Island hunt.

"In order to harvest, you have to be able to go where the seals congregate," he said.