Seal Clubbing - What do Canadian Divers Think?

[DivetheRock]

funkyspelunker,
Thanks for the invite to discuss these issues. I am, however, not one who seeks out to debate. Truthfully, I saw your post and just wanted to give my meager 2 cents - but that's it. These issues affect people differently across the board, but no matter what one could say there are those who set out to make war over such subjects (and I don't need my B/P raised over it). :-)
I know what I know from my experiences, but it's a Rubic's Cube of problems in our world. Tigerman, for example, brought up a very good point. And, you know what, no matter what we say, it's not going to change the fact that there will be seals clubbed this season; there will be bulls stabbed to death this year and the next and the next...; dolphins will continue to be slaughtered; wildlife hunted as trophies; bear farms in China;....you get my point.
Debating this via the internet, IMHumbleO, is moot.
(I'll continue to read these posts, though.) :-)

[Thrillhouse]

Make no mistake the seal hunt is a very visually disturbing sght for most people, then again so is watching cattle, chicken or hogs slaughtered.

Personally, I think this is a very important point to emphasise. The bottom line is that seals are cute, and attract a lot of public-attention because of it. While the annual slaughter of their populations up north attracts huge attention, many "less cute" animals that are also hunted off go unnoticed, and in places like Africa or Asia, are sometimes endangered species, which is far worse. Harp-seals are cute, but from an ecological point of view, the culling of their numbers is currently needed to maintain biodiversity, according to Fisheries Canada.

That being said, I personally support it for that reason. I'm not a fan of trophy hunting, but as it stands now, the hunt is needed to keep things in check. Of course it would be best to have a totally self-sustaining ecosystem, but 300 years of human habitation have so far made that impossible in the area. No one likes the idea of a seal getting clubbed to death, but I personally prefer a harp-seal having a chance against a clubber than a farm-animal having NO chance in a slaughter-house. In the end, the local ecosystems prosper, and those are ultimately more important than the individual lives of seals, as ecosystems have the potential to support many many many many MANY generations of creatures who will never be clubbed. There was an awesome article I read in my enviro. ethics class about extinction, and how wrong it is... Basically, the extinction of a species is the 'ultimate ecological evil', as it doesn't only result in immediate suffering, but the ultimate end to both life AND death, eternally, of that speices and all its numbers. Once gone, they're lost. Things like the seal-hunt, according to what I've heard, help prevent this from happening.

Is it because of the myths then that seal hunting is seen as barbaric? Is seal meat sold and consumed widely in Canada?

While most my life has been spent in the west, I've never once seen seal-meat for sale. Aside from remote communities, it is, like in the states, an extremely exotic foodstuff which you'll never see in a local supermarket.


All this being said, I personally have much more of a problem with Japanese/Norwegian whaling, or the hunting/poaching of endangered species. I know the above is a strong opinion, and don't mean to come off hard-headed... I'm open-minded, but to date this is how I've encountered the issue.

[haha49]

It's well documented that Cod population has ben descimated by overfishing and bottom trolling which kill the reefs. I must be missing something here, but I can't see why culling seal will help cod population rebound.

Furthermore, there are better ways of killing seal than clubbing them to death. I've never been on a deer hunt before, but I can assure you they don't club them to death.


I'm not against keeping the seal population in check to protect against disease or starvation , but there are much better ways of going about it don't you think?

as for killing them.. they pop up above the water near the ice and people bop them on the head and throw them into the pile..

i say let the people hunt they have to make a living some how its like saying all fishing is bad.. i feel that alot of people are against it because of the pups.. but too the fishermen they are a pest like deer are too farmers.. the sea lion will go into there nets eat all the fish and let the fisherman have nothing.. ive been fishing and after spendins hours and hours fianly catching something the sea lion comes up and gives you the fish head and sits there and taunghts you.. people have to make a liveing off fishing and if something did that too you you would want to bonk it over the head as well.. i have nothing agianst seals though.. they not as anoying.. i mean people get all up set about something and they say its babaric what really worse then seal hunting is chickens they live in a steel cage then get eaten talk about a crap life.. cows are another animail people dont think about i mean they jab a metal rod into its brain to kill it..

if you try not to kill the sea lion by hiting it over the head its probly going to bite you i mean cows are hearded around a metal girter and killed one at a time and they keep moveing foward towards death a seal lion will atually hurt you..