Here's a good article on the subject from someone who lives there...

http://www.cbncompass.ca/index.cfm?iid=1197&sid=8333

(hopefully this will not be too big to fit into Joe's large screen)


"They are the rage in Europe, but the question is where do they get them?

We see them on television - white and blue sealskin coats - on the catwalks of Europe and the runways of New York.

They are on the news every night now - those fancy fashion models - wearing white and blue sealskin coats, slinking down the runways, one leg directly in front of the other, like a fox tracking a rabbit.

While they strut their time upon the stage, the news announcer in the background quotes the most recent aged celebrity who claims we Newfoundlanders are barbarians.

As we all know in this province, we are not allowed to sell the skin of a whitecoat or blueback seal. It is a criminal offence for our sealers to do that.

Ottawa made sure, about seven years ago, that we ordinary Newfoundlanders and Labradorians would not forget the law when they ordered law enforcement officers to raid the homes, business premises, and trucks of all buyers of sealskins in this province.

Law enforcement officers seized all records of the buyers and any blueback sealskins they found. Every person who sold bluebacks in this province was charged with a criminal offence.

I know all about it because I am still in court representing some of the sealers in ongoing court cases at several communities on the Northeast coast.

Over and over we see the whitecoat and blueback clothing on CBC, CTV, CNN and other news networks, while they talk about us, shamelessly suggesting something that we know is one big fat fib.

The truth is that those beautiful whitecoat and blueback sealskins come from Europe, Asia and the United States where it is legal to sell whitecoats and bluebacks.

In those other countries the law states that every seal can be killed and the pelts sold as long as the seal is weaned from its mother - this means they can be taken about 10 to 12 days after birth. A blueback can remain a blueback for a couple of years.

So, these European and U.S. protesters who are objecting to the killing and selling of whitecoats and bluebacks should stay home and protest in their own front yard.

But they come to our province, where it is illegal to do the very thing they are protesting against, and where the penalties are so severe for breaking this law that nobody does it!


Of course the real reason why the protesters are here is because Canada is the only nation that allows them to get close to a seal, let alone a seal hunt.

The law in the United States is called The Marine Mammals Regulations of Alaska. That law says that no person, other than a sealer, can come to within 100 yards of a seal. A film crew in an airplane cannot come to within 1,500 feet of a seal. There is also no provision in U.S. law to allow a protester to be given a license to do what the aged celebrities are allowed to do on our coast.

Norway, renowned for its very high standard of living, directly subsidizes the seal hunt with cash paid for each seal pelt. Norway even issues hunting licenses to tourists to kill seals if they want but Norway does not allow protesters to approach a seal or be in the area of a seal hunt.

The UK law respecting seals even allows fishermen to kill all seals that approach fishing gear or salmon rivers.

Greenland has an unlimited quota to kill seals.
They estimate they killed in excess of 150,000 pup seals last year. Norway and Russia recorded 177,000 kills and they count their seals differently. They encourage sealers to kill whitecoats and bluebacks in their first year of life because of their high incidence of natural mortality. Their quotas are set so that three seal pups are counted as two adult seals.

While Canada is the only place in the world where television cameras are welcome to witness and film, on site, the killing of seals, you might have thought there was hope for change with Newfoundland's own newly-appointed federal fisheries minister Loyola Hearn in charge.

Last week the minister claimed that it is probably better to licence the protestors to come and film the seal hunt to show the world that it is well regulated and humane. Perhaps it is too obvious to point out to the minister that cameras aren't allowed in abattoirs (nor should they be) and they shouldn't be allowed on the pristine white ice fields. The abattoirs are closely regulated and inspected, and so are the ice fields."