Isn sealing an important economic activity for an economically disadvantaged group?
The economic value of the seal hunt is another one of those things that is open to interpretation. The federal government says the landed value of seals was $16.5 million in 2004, providing a “significant” source of income for thousands of sealers – benefiting them and their families at a time when, according to the DFO, “other fishing options are unavailable, or limited at best, in many remote, coastal communities.” That amounts to a fraction of the $600-million Newfoundland fishery. But for some sealers, it represents up to a third of their annual income. And in a province with jobless rates north of 15 per cent, they say that means even more. Not so fast, say the anti-sealing groups. The IFAW describes the contribution of sealing to Newfoundland’s GDP as “trivial” and says after costs and indirect subsidies are taken into account (patrolling the hunt, upgrading plants, promoting the hunt, developing new markets for seal products and supporting research to find new products), Canadia
