Canadian seal hunt, northern phase begins today.

[flvegan]

The spotlight on Canada's commercial seal hunt shifted north in anticipation of the northern Gulf of St. Lawrence phase. Sealers will be allowed to begin slaughtering thousands of seals on northern ice floes April 4.

Sealing boats made their way from the fragmented ice of the Magdalen Islands and the east coast of Quebec to solid ice floes in the north. In Newfoundland, reporters, scientists, and HSUS observers filed into Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans offices to receive permits for observing and documenting the hunt over the next several days. These permits had been denied to all observers by the agency for yesterday's start of the annual commercial hunt in the southern Gulf.

More:
http://www.hsus.org/marine_mammals/marine_mammals_news/sealers_converge_north.html

Quota this time around: 270,000 seals.

In the meantime...

"Condemning the annual Canadian commercial seal hunt as indefensible, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., introduced a resolution March 21 urging the government of Canada to put a stop to it.

"The clubbing of baby seals cannot be defended or justified," Levin said upon introducing the resolution. "I am joined by Senator Collins and Senator Biden in submitting a resolution that urges the Government of Canada to end this senseless and inhumane slaughter."

Levin has been long been at the forefront of the fight to protect seals from Canada's commercial hunt.

S.RES.118 notes that the seal hunt, which will start in earnest within the next week, has claimed the lives of more than one million seals in the past three years. In the last five years, 95 percent of the seals killed were pups between 12 days and 12 weeks old, many of them too young to have eaten their first solid meal or taken their first swim. The seals are killed by commercial fishermen looking to earn extra cash from the fur industry."

More:
http://www.hsus.org/marine_mammals/marine_mammals_news/levin_res_07.html

Rebecca Aldworth, HSUS, blogging from the ice, here:
http://hsus.typepad.com/seals/2007/04/index.html#entry-32478436

[Annces]

1. You can also hit the seal killers in the pocket book

by not buying seafood from Canada, or going to places such as Red Lobster, and letting Canada government know about it.

[judaspriestess]

2. K & R

looking to earn extra cash? this is truly horrifying and I am so fucking sick of humans defecating on this earth.

[LeftyMom]

3. K&R

:hi: