• Humans decimate the whale and walrus populations in Nova Scotia and then turn to grey seals for new supply of blubber for oil

• Grey seals are hunted to near extinction, surviving only because humans then turned their attention to the next easy and more plentiful target - the harp seal

1967 to 1983

• DFO implements an annual "cull", sending Environment Canada's Conservation and Protection Branch workers and sealers to grey seal whelping colonies each year to kill as many adult and nursing seal pups as possible

• It is estimated that during this time period, 90% of all seal pups born outside of the protected Sable Island rookery were slaughtered by government agents

• From 1967 to 1983 16,000 grey seal pups and 4,000 related adults were butchered in their whelping grounds [U.S. gov source says 27,520 seals in total for period - annual average of 1720 seals]

• The reason given for this despicable practice - grey seals were "detrimental to groundfish stocks"

• Fishermen considered grey seals to be vermin, stealing "their" fish, destroying their fishing gear

• The ultimate goal of Nova Scotia fishermen and DFO was the annihilation of the species

• Because of such aggression, the grey seal population in Nova Scotia was nearly completely decimated

1976

"It is not easy to shoot at a hair seal or at a grey seal under water; anyone who knows anything about it will tell you that. Things move. Everything moves. The boat is moving. The seals are moving, Everything is moving. I can tell you you have to be a really good shot."

Fisherman Ghislain Cyr,
April 2003
37th Parliament, 2nd Session
Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans, May 6, 2003
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"The CVMA opposes the shooting of seals in the water as this can result in an unacceptably high rate of loss of these animals at some times of the year."

Canadian Veterinary Medical Association

• Bounty established by Canadian government

• Fishermen paid a generous sum of money by Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans in exchange for the jawbone of the slaughtered grey seal, given as proof of death

1992

• Bounty removed

• Grey seal numbers begin to recover

• In 1997 DFO estimated that there were 195,000 grey seals living in the waters of Nova Scotia. They now estimate that there are between 300,000 and 310,000. These estimates are highly suspect, as no further scientific surveys have been done since 1997.

1999

"No, brucellosis is a disease of animals, not humans. If they had TB it would be a different concern.."

Ernest Fage, Former NS Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, when asked if products from seals infected with brucellosis pose a health hazard to humans
Hansard Nova Scotia House of Assembly Committee on Resources, April 18, 2006
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Brucellosis is an infectious disease caused by the bacteria of the genus Brucella...Humans become infected by coming in contact with animals or animal products that are contaminated with these bacteria.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

• Canadian Fisheries Resource Conservation Council requests an experimental commercial seal hunt of up to 20,000 grey seals on Sable Island, a protected area

• Government will not permit grey seals on Sable Island to be killed but allows a few hundred seals to be killed elsewhere each year

2004

• A fishing industry group calling itself the Grey Seal Research and Development Society asks Ottawa for permission to hunt grey seals, including in protected area of Sable Island.

• The Department of Fisheries and Oceans allocates a quota of 10,000 of the animals to be filled by 2006

• For more information please read Nova Scotia Grey Seal Hunt 2004 by Debbie MacKenzie

2006

• Deadline for filling TAC of 10,000 grey seals subsequently extended to March 2007

• Fishermen report that only 2,000 grey seals killed (note: this number is not actually verified by DFO as DFO relies on "hail-ins" from fishermen to advise how many seals they have killed)

• TAC further extended to encourage the fishing/sealing industry to develop products and markets for seal products

  "We've already thought of the net idea and we're thinking about what time of year we can get the concentrations of adults on islands, maybe before they start their reproductive cycle, where they gather."
  
  Denny Morrow, Secretary/Treasurer
  Grey Seal Research and Development Society
  Hansard Nova Scotia House of Assembly Committee on Resources, April 18, 2006
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  "Also in some regions of the Atlantic coast, subsistence hunters rely on the use of nets set in water to catch and drown the animals. The CVMA opposes this method of hunting, as drowning is considered to be a protracted and, therefore, inhumane form of death."
  
  Canadian Veterinary Medical Association

• Grey Seal Research and Development Society requests a commercial seal hunt be organized to kill 50% of the grey seal population, which they estimate at 310,000, in order to stop the seals from threatening "fragile fish stocks"

• Despite the lack of scientific proof, the Society continues to insist that the seals are eating all the fish and preventing groundfish stocks from rebounding to previous numbers

• Grey Seal Research and Development Society Society requests the government fund market initiatives for products derived from slaughtered seals

• Society requests the province provide engineering and financial assistance to fit fishing boats in order to handle large grey seal carcasses destined for processing and export.

• Society wants to kill large concentrations of adult grey seals by drowning them in nets and in drown-set underwater traps, a particularly inhumane method of killing that is opposed by the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association.

• When asked about concerns about humans becoming ill from Brucellosis transmitted from infected seal products, Nova Scotia Resources Committee member and former Nova Scotia Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture Ernst Fage misleads other Committee members, insisting that Brucellosis is "an animal disease, not a human disease" - this is not correct.

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Present Day

"It would seem like if you could get the proper permitting, and certainly if it's a drown-type set, you don't have to bother with guns or noise. If you can get the right enclosure that is submerged, it would seem, with permitting in that manner, you could move in, harvest properly."

Ernest Fage, Former NS Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries
Hansard Nova Scotia House of Assembly Committee on Resources, April 18, 2006
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"Death by suffocation of seals trapped in nets underwater is clearly protracted, and suffering is likely to be prolonged, although the exact period of stress will vary but has not been specifically studied...
It would appear that this mode of death holds no advantages for diving animals such as seals, from an animal welfare perspective."

EFSA Journal, 2007
'Animal Welfare aspects of the killing and skinning of seals'

Grey seals today are persecuted in a number of ways. Fishermen are allowed to shoot "nuisance seals" (ie seals that eat what the fishermen consider to be "their" fish and lobsters). There have been reports of seals being shot by fishermen and left to suffer for days before succumbing to their injuries. There are reports of seals being killed by underwater leg-hold traps snapping shut on their snouts and holding them prisoner until they drown (a long, protracted and inextremely inhumane manner to kill seals, according to the European Food Safety Authority).

The commercial grey seal hunt in Nova Scotia is completely unregulated, unmonitored and the humaneness of the killing cannot be verified by DFO, by its own admission.

A DFO official in February of 2007 admitted to a Coalition founding member that the annual slaughter of grey seal pups in Port Hood, Nova Scotia is unregulated, unmonitored and very likely inhumane. For details of that statement, please see the related press release.

DFO does not guarantee that quotas are not exceeded (DFO relies on "hail-ins" from sealers, wherein sealers will call in and tell them how many seals they have killed) and does not monitor the killing ("We don’t look over their shoulders as they work"). Nova Scotia fishermen are given free reign to kill as many grey seals as they can find and kill them in any manner they see fit.

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