The sealers aren't just sealers. They are also fishermen.

Which rather does connect them to the problem of depleted fisheries. As the cod dwindled, they pressured Ottawa to increase the quotas on seals, as an alternative means of exploiting the area's resources. They are only concerned about depleting the resources when it is THEIR livelihood at stake. They ain't exactly the most economic and enviromentally altruistic bunch of guys on the planet.

And BTW, why no mention, if we are talking about all this, of the endangered and nearly extinct North Atlantic right whale, hmmmmm?

Could it be because yer beloved fishermen are guilty of killing a few here and there every now and then? Part of the price the planet shall pay for them being a sad, forlorn bycatch that will be extinct in a few more years anyway, so sod 'em?