European seal product bans 'a crisis': industry group

Canadian sealers have been warned they are but a step away from being cut out of the European marketplace, as more politicians warm to a ban.

"Your industry … is in a crisis situation," Bruce Williams, president of the Fur Institute of Canada, told a meeting in St. John's.

Dutch and Belgian politicians have already passed a ban on seal products, while Germany, Italy and Austria have drafted similar legislation, he said.

As well, legislators in France, Spain and the United Kingdom are considering it.

The greatest markets for sealing products are in Scandinavia and Asian countries, particularly China.

Nonetheless, Williams said the spectre of a ban across Europe must be taken seriously. The Fur Institute is meeting this week, in part to forge a strategy on European opposition.

Dion Dakins, a board member of the Fur Institute and an executive of Atlantic Marine Products, said sealers must use killing methods that are acceptable in the European Union.

"There's no reason why we should be afraid of setting some type of guidelines, or principles or standards, whatever word you want to use, on how we harvest our seals to make sure it is done correctly, that it is done humanely, [so that it] satisfied what they want in the EU and still allows us to do our business," Dakins said.

Most seals killed in eastern Canada's annual harp seal hunt are taken by hunters using rifles, off the northeast coast of Newfoundland and off Labrador.

However, the hakapik — a long metal-hooked club — is still widely used in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Some sealers and politicians, including Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams, have suggested ending the use of the hakapik, because of the optics of clubbing seals.

Meanwhile, Loyola Sullivan, the federal government's ambassador for fisheries conservation, admits that it will be difficult to persuade European politicians to drop plans on banning seal products.

"It would be unpopular now for a member of parliament [from a] European country to support the hunt," Sullivan said.

"It is much easier to go along with a ban. It is the popular thing to do. It doesn't invoke any criticism from constituents and so on."

Despite criticism from protest groups, the sealing industry has been doing well in international markets in recent years, because of increased demand for fur products. In Newfoundland and Labrador, where most seals are landed, the landed value of seals in 2007 was more than $11 million.