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The fate of sealing

OLD HABITS die hard, as do misconceptions about the seal hunt off Canada's East Coast.

Open to 12,000 licensed hunters with a total limit of 350,000 harp seals, the hunt not only attracts worldwide interest but generates controversy at home and around the globe.

It's often the subject of intense hand-wringing by a host of groups only too eager to whip up emotion.

The existing seal hunt is not the huge cull some think is necessary to help groundfish stocks recover, but it at least makes a start on controlling the expanding seal herd.

For years now, the Fisheries Resource Conservation Council has been urging Ottawa to implement a seal hunt to help rebuild groundfish stocks. Nova Scotia Fisheries Minister Chris d'Entremount recently endorsed a controlled grey seal harvest which likely would take place on coastal islands.

The value of the annual hunt now in place is pegged at $15 million in Canada. Top-quality pelts this season are worth up to $60. The killing of young harp seals, a sight that once fuelled a lively anti-seal-hunt campaign, was banned in 1987. But pictures of cute white-coated baby seals being brutally killed continue to be used by some to enhance their efforts to stop the hunt.

Unfortunately, where there is a will, there most often is a way to try to sabotage the legitimate efforts of harvesting seals. The challenge for those involved in the hunt is to calmly and rationally separate fact from fiction in what is bound to be a repeat performance in the clash between the two groups.

Like many things in life, it takes the misdeeds of only a few to undermine the blameless conduct of many. An industry under intense scrutiny by those who find it abhorrent is one whose participants should be all the more careful and thoughtful in maintaining high standards. Care must be taken to ensure it's undertaken legally as well as humanely.

With this year's harp seal hunt only days old, and with plans afoot to expand it to curb overpopulation, may those participating in it and those opposing it respect each other's strongly held views. It would be equally helpful were both sides to enter into a debate guided more by the facts and not solely by unrestrained emotion...