What Seals Are Targeted by Canadas Seal Hunt?
Harp seals are the primary target of the commercial seal hunt, and to a much smaller extent, hooded seals are also killed. Fully 97% of the harp seals killed are pups under just three months of age. Who Kills Seals and Why? Sealing is an off-season activity conducted by fishermen from Canada’s East Coast. They make, on average, a small fraction of their annual incomes from sealing How Are the Seals Killed? The Canadian Marine Mammal Regulations, which govern the hunt, stipulate sealers may kill seals with wooden clubs, hakapiks (large ice-pick-like clubs) and guns. In the Gulf of St. Lawrence, clubs and hakapiks are the killing implement of choice, and in the Front, guns are more widely used. It is important to note that each killing method is demonstrably cruel. Because sealers shoot at seals from moving boats, the pups are often only wounded. The main sealskin processing plant in Canada deducts $2 from the price they pay for the skins for each bullet hole they findtherefore sealers a
