Seal hunt continues on Canada's east coast

TORONTO -- Seal hunting will be allowed for another month off Canada's east coast because the annual quota of 350,000 has not been reached, an official said yesterday.

Christie Parcigneau, a media officer with Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans, said about 280,000 harp seals have been killed so far.

''The hunt can go on until May 15, depending on the weather and if the quota has been reached," Parcigneau said.

Canada's seal hunt has been the target of protests from animal welfare activists since the 1960s. Using rifles and spears, the hunt begins about 12 days after the seal pups are born, when their fur changes from white to gray.

Many countries, including the United States, still ban imports of seal products, but Canada supports the hunt to help its economically suffering coastal towns. The industry earned about $15 million last year, primarily from pelt sales to Norway, Denmark, and China.

Aboriginal and Inuit subsistence and commercial hunters begin the kill Nov. 15 in Canada's vast expanse of frozen northern waters that reaches from the Yukon Territories near Alaska through the Arctic Ocean and down into the North Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Labrador.

From March 26-30, the second commercial hunting season opens in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The third and largest hunt takes place in an arc of the Atlantic Ocean sweeping out from 30 to 40 miles off Newfoundland.

That kill was to end in the east on April 13. But because a preliminary count found the quota has not been reached the hunt resumed, Parcigneau said.

Because Inuit and aboriginal sealers typically never fill their quota, hunting often continues until the ice breaks up or the season officially ends on May 15.

This year's quota was the largest since a limit was instituted in the 1960s. Wildlife officials said the harp seal population is growing at 5.2 million and pelts are garnering record prices of about $50 each.