Some Cape Breton sealers are planning to hunt in the Gulf region now that the grey seal harvest on Hay Island is over, a spokesman with the federal Fisheries Department said Tuesday.

A group from Port Hood told a fisheries official they would be sealing on the ice surrounding privately owned Henry Island, Michel Therien said. Sealers are required to notify the department at least 24 hours before they go out to hunt.

About 2,000 animals can be killed during the hunt that began Monday in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence.

But Mr. Therien said that bad weather and a shrinking market for seal pelts could decrease the number of animals that are taken. Only about 1,400 were culled in the region last year.

A spokeswoman for a Halifax anti-sealing group was outraged, saying the owner of the island does not agree with "the slaughter." Bridget Curran of the Atlantic Canadian Anti-Sealing Coalition has not spoken with the owner herself.

The opening of the hunt in the southern Gulf region coincided with a European parliamentary committee’s decision to ban imported seal products. That decision must be put to a vote before the European assembly and parliaments before it would become legislation.