Sealing industry bemoans lack of talks on EU ban at summit in N.L.

Members of the seal industry and advocates for the hunt say they don't understand the decision to a hold a Canada-European Union summit in St. John's without making a longtime European ban on seal products a priority during the talks.

Implemented by the EU in 2009, the trade ban on seal products, based on ethical concerns, deprived thousands of seal hunters in Eastern Canada of their most important market. The sealing industry, whose biggest footprint is in Nunavut and Newfoundland and Labrador, has never recovered.

Gil Thériault, the head of the association representing Quebec's seal hunters, said planning two days of bilateral meetings in Newfoundland and Labrador, "the very place Ottawa abandoned," and not bringing up the seal products ban "sends a message of complete disregard for people in coastal communities."

According to groups representing seal hunters and processors, the EU embargo is the result of an extremely effective lobbying campaign from animal-rights groups, who depicted the hunt as an inhumane slaughter. Sealers say that's false and that the hunt is sustainable and conducted without cruelty.

"Those laws are based on propaganda," said Jim Winter, founding president of the Canadian Sealers Association, in St. John's. The ban exists for "moral reasons" and has no basis in fact, added Winter, who protested the ban before several European parliaments.

'We've addressed that concern'

Dion Dakins, CEO of Carino, Newfoundland's last processors for seal products, recognizes there were concerns in the past about the seal hunt — such as those raised in a report from an independent group of veterinarians in 2005 — but says the industry has since been heavily scrutinized by experts and has professionalized its activities.

"Canada did respond, we improved our animal welfare, it started as an animal welfare concern, we've addressed that concern," he said, adding numerous reports have concluded the hunt is ethical.

On Wednesday, EU officials in Brussels listed off the key discussions topics during the summit between Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel. The seal hunt was not mentioned and when Radio-Canada asked whether it was on the agenda, officials said it "may come up" but the ban was "not a major trade irritant."

Radio-Canada asked the Prime Minister's Office whether Trudeau would bring up the seal ban during the summit but was redirected to the federal fisheries minister, Diane Lebouthilier. Her spokesperson did not answer the question.

"That's to be expected," said Mike Kehoe, a former public servant in the Newfoundland and Labrador government's Fisheries Department. "It's an important issue here but we, Newfoundland and Labrador, are not an important issue in Ottawa."

Seal population explodes

Thériault, based in the Magdalen Islands, said the seal population has exploded in Eastern Canada in recent years. The millions of the carnivorous marine mammals are now threatening several commercial fish stocks in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence, according to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

"One of the man factors impending fish stock recovery is the surplus population of seals. We have the American plaice, the flounder, the herring, the mackerel, the cod, we got a whole list" of affected stocks, Thériault said.

"What is the impact of eight million harp seals, half a million hooded seals, two million grey seals? You add it all up and there's probably 11 million seals up the eastern seaboard of Canada and up into the Arctic. What impact are they having on commercial fish stocks of Newfoundland and Labrador, Nunavut and Quebec?" added Dakins.

Dakins said the number of seal landings has cratered since the EU ban was put into place. In 2023, according to DFO, there were only 40,000 seals landed. In 2008, the year before the ban was implemented, there were 218,000.

Dakins said there are currently just 2,000 hunters actively involved in the hunt, compared with 6,000 before the ban.

"With a ban on a species that is clearly having an enormous impact on fisheries sustainability, perhaps there's common ground to sit down at the table and find a better way forward," Dakins said of the summit.

Shane Mahoney, CEO of the independent organization Conservation Visions and the former head of animal research for the government of Newfoundland and Labrador, said markets still exist for Canadian seal products. 

But the longer a ban stays in place, the fewer sealers remain, he said, and the more institutional and seafaring knowledge could be lost.

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