Yahoo News 15 Mar 10;
OTTAWA (AFP) – Canada's fisheries minister on Monday hiked the total number of seals that hunters would be allowed to slaughter during an annual Atlantic coast hunt set to begin later this month.
The total allowable catch for harp seals this season will rise to 330,000, from 280,000 last year, while quotas for grey and hooded seals will remain unchanged at 50,000 and 8,200 animals, respectively.
The reason cited by officials for the increased quota is a growing seal population in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and in waters east of Newfoundland.
"This government is united in its support of the thousands of coastal Canadian sealers who rely on the seal hunt for their livelihood," Fisheries Minister Gail Shea said in a statement.
"The seal hunt is a sustainable activity based on sound conservation principles."
The estimated populations of the grey and hooded seal herds are over 300,000 and 600,000 respectively and "continue to grow every year."
The harp seal population, meanwhile, is estimated at 6.9 million "or more than triple what it was in the 1970s."
Around 6,000 Canadians take part in seal hunting each year along the Atlantic coast, and 25 percent of their sales came from exporting products to Europe.
The 27 European Union states in July 2009 adopted a ban on seal products, ruling the goods could not be marketed from 2010.
Canada and Greenland account for more than 50 percent of the 900,000 seals slain in the world each year. Other seal-hunting countries include Norway, Namibia, Iceland, Russia and the United States.
