Ethics of Seal Clubbing in Canada

Ethics of shut Clubbing in CanadaChet MerklinJeff SmithCanadian Seal ClubbingSeals perplex it rough. They race for food, they eat, they nurture their young, they procreate, they sleep, and they survive. Their fate, however, isnt very in their flippers at all. The true power rests with a species far much indecisive and far less furry than the cachets over which it fights amongst itself. Fifty historic period ago, controversy amid fleshly rights activist groups and Canadian cacheters broke and has heretofore to cease over the hunting of stamps in the Canadian northeast. It was thought to have been won though, for a while. Two decades after the protests began, the banishment of baby whitecoats (adolescent stamp of approval pups, swathed in white fur) was brought ab step to the fore by the European Economic corporation in 1983, crippling the trade and putting on the mask of supremacy for the environmentalists who had fought for it so bitterly. That was it, the fight was ove r. This would be proven wrong twenty geezerhood later when the trade of older pup furs surpassed any other epoch thirty-five years previous. The Canadian varnish hunt was back in full swingand so were the environmentalists, battling for the rights of an animal seen as an object for victimisation by a species that doesnt fully beneathstand what the stakes of the consideration it has with itself to this day are (Warne).Seal pups are brought up on the icing the puck because it is critical for giving birth, nursing pups, and molting (Warne). This allows for other, less water-happy predators a window to attack these seals when they are most vulnerable. Because of this, when humans first landed in northeastern what-is-now Canada, they saw the seal as an unlimited re aliketh root for some(prenominal) fur and fat. Though the furs of seals didnt come into style until the late 1940s, seals were catch long before then. By 1972, the demand for seal fur was increase inversely to the decreasing seal population, and the seals were dipping steadily in numbers. In 1976, as debate over the hunt was heating up, seal scientist David Lavigne warned in this magazine that the survival of the live seal hangs in the balance (Warne). The ban was placed, the seal populations rose once again, and the seal hunting ceased. When the seal hunt began to proliferate again nearing the turn of the century, so did the numbers of supporters of the seal looking at how the hunt was actually conducted.Todays modern seal hunt isnt really much of a hunt at all In fact, depending on the condition of the churl flows, the sealers can have varying degrees of difficulty in getting to the seals. Methods take walking from their trucks, driving up to them with their snowmobiles, taking commercial icebreaking or little boats to close or distant ice flows, then getting out of the boats and walking to them, or shooting seals from the boats (mouth harpseals.org).Once seals are located, hunters ty pically prelude the seals and kill them with a weapon called a hakapik, a long stick-like hawkshaw with a hooked blade attached at the end. As depict by opponents of the hunt on harpseals.org, the hunters then check to see if the animal has died before skinning it.The DFO now instructs sealers to palpate the seals skull with an object (such as a leach or hakapik) to assess whether it has been fatally crushed before proceeding to phlebotomize and then skin the seal. So this means that, after clubbing the seal pup, the sealer with prod the seal on the head with a game or hook or rifle barrel. This crude method of palpation is intended to enable the sealer to determine whether the seal is alive or conscious. And if the seal is save conscious, well, one can image how that would feel (harpseals.org).In essence, though the seal is no longer under serious threat by the hunt, the brutality of the process is still viciously criticized by environmentalists on the side of the seals.On t he proponent side of the argument stand fisher cat and the sealers themselves. Fishermen are in direct competition with the seals when it comes to a wide miscellanea of fish, crustaceans, and mollusks. One main concern is the north-Atlantic cod harvest, greatly impacted since the pop off of seal populations. According to Canadian federal fisheries minister John Crosbie, The predator-prey relationships between seals and capelin and between seals and cod are not fully understood, Crosbie said. However, the march that we have to date indicates that the unchecked growth of seal herds, particularly of harp seals, is harming the (northern) cod stock (Gorham). This was stated in an article from 1992, and the issue still rests today. Ever since 1982, seal populations have gone unchecked and have sacked populations many another(prenominal) fishermen rely on for sustenance and a sole source of income. In addition to this, seal hunters respect restrictions and quotas as to the limits on how many seals they can bring home. The biggest concern when the ban on baby seals was apply was that the seals might grow too rapidly in numbers. We believe that the Atlantic harp seal herd is now not only stable, only when probably growing. The simple fact is that there is no possible mishap that the animal is in any danger of extinction, and its ridiculous for anyone to suggest that it is in danger. My personal concern, at this time is that the herd might grow too much (thesealfishery.com). Stated by Tom Hughes, Executive Vice-President of the Ontario Federation of human-centered Societies in 1978, this quote applied to harp seals, numbering just under 2 million. Today, that number rests around 6 million.Personally, from the data Ive been mulling over, the northeastern Canadian harp seal hunt is well regulated and scrutinized. In my opinion, the seal trade should continue, as it is an excellent governor of a clay lacking in major predation already. I have no qualms with the continuation of the hunt, and believe that it should continue under current conditions, perhaps correct increasing quotas with the increasing number of seals available. If anything, quotas should fluctuate evenly with population fluctuations of the harp seals themselves. From my perspective, the only discrepancy I can imagine with the hunt is the religion of the methods used to take the seals. According to three of the four sources I cited below, the motherfucker used by hunters kills the seals almost immediately and is also handy for transporting seal carcasses and aiding in grip in case a hunter fall through the ice. So long as hunters correctly judge that the seal is truly dead before skinning it, I believe that the continuation of the seal hunt is justified and worth preservation.Works CitedAn Introduction to the Canadian Seal endure. About the Seal Hunt. Harpseals.org, n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2014.Canadian Harp Seal Hunt A Pro Perspective. The Seal Fishery.com. Thesealfishery.c om, n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2014.Gorham, Rob. Seal Controversy. Chronicle-Herald (Halifax, Canada). 18 Apr. 1992 C1+. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 21 Nov. 2014.Warne, Kennedy. Harp Seals The Hunt for Balance. National Geographic. March 2004 50-67. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 21 Nov. 2014.