"Canada's Seal Hunt Killed by Climate Change, Economic Change"

"OTTAWA -- Canada's annual seal hunt opened Monday off northeastern Newfoundland in an area called The Front, but few sealers went to the ice amid low demand for seal pelts, poor prices and a European Union ban on seal products.

In February, Canada mounted a formal challenge to the EU ban at the World Trade Organization. The government is also trying to open new markets for seal meat in China, but any agreements that are eventually reached in either case will not affect this year's hunt.

The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans estimates the harp seal population this year is about nine million animals, or about four times the size it was in the 1970s. The agency set this year's quota for the harp seal hunt at 400,000 animals, the highest quota set since 1971.

Dwight Spence of Port au Choix on Newfoundland's Northern Peninsula told the CBC that he and the other sealers he knows say prices are too low for them to make a profit this year after paying for fuel and supplies. The sealers earn about $21 for each top-quality pelt, way down from the price level a decade ago."

Environment News Service had the story April 13, 2011.