EJ

It doesn't matter how they are killed as long as it is as quick and humane as possible. This year, new regulations require my father to carry clubs of specific size and weight on his boat in addition to his rifles in case the seals are not yet dead when they are pulled from the water. In that case he is required to kill it with a firm blow to the head and then administer the "blink test" to insure that the animal is dead before it is skinned. This is part of a comprehensive program to address concerns about "cruelty" and to do everything possible to minimize accidental "cruelty".

That said, for the most part, in the hunt that my father and I have participated in, it is extremely rare for the shot that hits the seal not to kill it. The animal is in the water and the only target that it presents are its head and a small part of its neck. A 303 or 3030 round in a target the size of a large honeydew melon usually does enough damage to kill. It is a very sporting hunt. The one time I went Seal hunting, we spent the better part of a day chasing one large seal over half of a fifty square mile bay, and with the action of the waves and the natural advantages that the animal has, we got no opportunity to cleanly shoot. We used half a tank of gas with our 20 merc outboard. Every time we got close, the animal would submerge only to reappear hundreds of meters away in a completely different direction.