Seal tac

[gibb]

http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/media/npres...q-ac06-eng.htm

Minister Shea Announces the 2009 Management Measures for the Atlantic Seal Hunt
March 20, 2009


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OTTAWA – The Honourable Gail Shea, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, today announced the total allowable catch (TAC) for the 2009 Atlantic seal hunt.

“Sealing is a significant source of income in many small, isolated coastal communities throughout Atlantic Canada, Quebec and the North,” said Minister Shea. “Our management decisions for the hunt take into account this fact as well as the advice of scientists to ensure the seal population is maintained.”

The 2009 harp seal TAC has been set at 280,000, out of a herd of more than 5.5 million. This one-year TAC includes allocations of 2,000 seals for personal use, 5,040 seals for Aboriginal initiatives and a carry forward of 13,092 seals for those fleets that did not capture their quota from 2008. About 70% of the TAC is allocated to the Front (waters east of Newfoundland and Labrador). The Gulf of St. Lawrence receives about 30% of the TAC.

The hooded seal TAC has been set at 8,200 animals out of a herd of 600,000. The grey seal TAC for 2009 is 50,000 animals out of a herd of 300,000.

“Canada is a world leader in the management of the seal hunt. DFO’s Fishery Officers will be closely monitoring this year’s hunt to ensure compliance with the regulations and licence conditions, and they will take enforcement action when necessary,” said Minister Shea.

Surveillance is conducted through ongoing aerial patrols, cameras, sophisticated vessel monitoring systems, at-sea and dockside vessel inspections, regular inspections of processing facilities, and independent third party observers.

Minister Shea also repeated the Government of Canada’s commitment to defend Canada’s humane and sustainable seal hunt, and the livelihoods that depend on it, while on the international stage.

“Our government will continue to defend the rights of Canadian sealers to provide a livelihood for their families through our lawful, sustainable and humane hunt, said Shea. We are extremely disappointed that the European Parliament has called for a disruption of the trade of seal products and our position remains that any ban on a humanely conducted hunt, such as Canada’s, is completely without merit. We will continue to explore all legal and diplomatic options and Canadians can be assured that we will exercise our rights to their fullest extent under international trade laws if and when it becomes necessary and appropriate."

To learn more about the seal hunt, visit: http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/media/seal-...phoque-eng.htm.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION

Phil Jenkins
Media Relations
Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Ottawa
613-990-7537


Ann Matejicka
Director of Communications
Office of the Minister
Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Ottawa
613-992-3474


NR-HQ-09-06E

[uglyelk]

Yup the Europeans destroy the market and then are gracious enough to allow indigenous folks to tinker a bit with fur and eat a bit of seal meat. How noble of them. Yeah what do the Innu want with a wee bit of cash. Who do these backward clowns think they are? These are resources to manage not theirs, govern your own damn nations and keep your noses out of ours!

I was going back and forth on what 22 to buy the young lad. The CZ 452 or the Savage Mark II BTVS it was becoming a tough decision. These peckerwoods made the decision easy. Made in Canada By Savage...and it's a tack driver! It arrived today! I’ll do my best to boycott all European products.

Back in the green peace days and Bardot we had the first big run at the seal hunt. Until then the people of the Maritimes had pretty much lived in balance with their resources.

For 400 years the people of NFLD caught cod and hunted seals. Year after year generation after generation it was a balanced system the harvests were sustainable.

Then the foreign factory trawlers show up on the Grand banks and started taking to many cod. The fishery was in decline, the seal hunt became more important to fishermen, they needed the income and they needed the meat. With no money and no cod you went sealing to provide for your family. Most men would tell you its hard and dangerous work, but it’s better than being on welfare!

But our European neighbors would not let these men provide for their families. While they also raped the cod stocks on the grand banks they began to pressure Canada to end the seal hunt. Long story short the liberal government caved in and the seal hunt ended for a time.

The Cod fishery collapsed. Despite numerous international agreements on fishing Atlantic cod the population never recovered. The Cod fishery and the seal hunt were gone. Pretty much wiped out income on the rock.

What did the seals do during the moratorium on seal hunting, they breed and ate fish. Seal populations exploded. In 1974 it was estimated there was 1.8 million harp seals on the ice flows. Today that estimate is 5.4 to 6 million seals. What do 4 million seals eat each year…..over 10 billion dollars worth of fish!

So not only did the Europeans help destroy Atlantic cod stocks by over fishing them, they also drove the last nail in the coffin for the species by pushing for an end to sealing.

Adult seals eat, Capelin, Herring and Cod. What do young seals eat, crab.
NFLD has bounced back, the people on the rock always do! Today there is a healthy snow crab fishery. But with the increased numbers of fur bearing predators it will also go the way of the Cod. The balance must be restored to the Atlantic. The seal numbers must decline, predator densities are too high in the Atlantic, species will be lost if they are not reduced.

The Royal Newfoundland Regiment lost 95 % of their men fighting in Europe…to what end…so Europe could destroy the rock without even setting foot on her shores? I think not, it’s time to fight back; it’s time to defend our way of life gentlemen. If we don’t fight for it will be gone! The Lads on the rock are more forgiving than I, for if I were them it would be difficult to not hold every anti sealer I met under the water until they stopped kicking.

And we are as bad as the Europeans:

http://yubanet.com/enviro/Sea-Shephe...-Seal-Hunt.php

Militant veganism operating as business’s indoctrinating their personnel to spread the word…and we sit idle and let it happen. We don’t deserve the rights our forefathers died for. The time for us to get vocal and active is long over due, speak up of it will be gone. If you don’t fight for your rights you don’t deserve any!

End of rant!