NDP deliver protected wilderness to seal hunters

Environment minister Sterling Belliveau nonsensically opens a protected wilderness area to seal hunting

by Bruce Wark

Oh, how I wish I could declare Province House a protected wilderness. How else to preserve that rare and forever-endangered flower, political common sense. Now that the NDP juggernaut has swept into office, political common sense may be trampled into extinction. Consider, for example, last week's verbal gyrations performed by our new environment minister. Sterling Belliveau was trying to justify changes to the Wilderness Areas Protection Act allowing the slaughter of seals in a protected area.

Being an NDP environment minister, you'd think Belliveau would have fought tooth and nail to preserve the sanctity of every square inch of protected wilderness. After all, the New Democrats won recent praise from activists when they promised to spend $81 million this year to buy up privately owned land to protect as wilderness. (Only about nine percent of the province is protected wilderness now, but the government has pledged to work toward a target of 12 percent by 2015.)

But then, incredibly, there was Belliveau giving himself the power to allow the slaughter of grey seals in the protected wilderness of Hay Island off northeastern Cape Breton. He actually told the legislature (I'm not making this up) that his new law will "strike a balance between economic and environmental interests."

OK. Let's see now. The seal pups that are the target of the slaughter are wild, right? And, they're in a protected wilderness, right? And the reason we have protected wilderness areas is to protect the wild plants and animals within them, right? In the words of the law, wilderness areas "protect representative examples of natural landscapes and ecosystems." So Sterling, why do we suddenly need "to strike a balance between economic and environmental interests" in a protected wilderness?

In the legislature, Belliveau resorted to a stunning barrage of non-commonsensical gobbledygook to justify the slaughter. He began by noting that the Tories allowed a "seal harvest" on Hay Island for the past two years. (They got around the law by claiming a seal slaughter would preserve the island's biodiversity, presumably by saving fish that seals eat.)

Here is what Belliveau told the legislature (again, I'm not making this up): "While studies to assess the benefit of this harvest to the island biodiversity have been inconclusive and there is no evidence to suggest that there has been any harm done to the island because of these seal harvests, and since we have this information, our objective with this amendment is to make the process for allowing the Department of Fisheries and Oceans seal harvest on Hay Island more straightforward."

Huh?

Belliveau performed this verbal two-step while glossing over a striking conflict of interest. Yes, our environment minister is also minister of fisheries, a department that desperately wants us to blame seals for the continued decline of cod stocks wiped out by decades of overfishing. Trouble is, there are no credible scientific studies to show that seals eat enough cod to make a crucial difference. For example, a 2006 study from the Bedford Institute of Oceanography says there's little evidence that seals are mainly to blame for the continued decline of the stocks. The study emphasizes there is much scientific uncertainty, adding that grey seals do eat cod, but cod are only a small part of their diet. It concludes that while grey seals contribute to a decline in the cod stocks, even killing all of them "would not assure the recovery of the cod population."

No matter. Belliveau can now authorize the slaughter of seals in a wilderness area. The record shows that NDP MLAs voted en masse to give him this power, except for Howard Epstein, who didn't vote at all. I'd say the environmentally savvy Epstein would have been a much better choice as environment minister than the hopelessly conflicted Belliveau. But, then again, appointing Epstein would have made political common sense-—and, around Province House these days, common sense seems to be going the way of the cod.

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""For example, a 2006 study from the Bedford Institute of Oceanography says there's little evidence that seals are mainly to blame for the continued decline of the stocks""

Indeed they may not be "MAINLY" to blame. So what? I expect that overfishing is the MAIN cause. This seems a bit "weasle-wordish" to me, sorry.
I could just as truthfully say that car emmisions alone are not MAINLY to blame for the greenhouse effect. Again, so what?

There IS such a thing as a "biomass constant" as worked out at BIO as well, by Ray Sheldon, that reasons that indeed, if large "steak cod" are reduced in number, (and mass) as they have been, something will take their place in the food chain. And it ain't gonna be Albatross...

Would you care to put a marine biologist on record as saying that the seal hunt/cull is a BAD idea, based on science alone? Please don't use the BIO to promote your anti-seal hunt agenda, without backing it up.

""It concludes that while grey seals contribute to a decline in the cod stocks, even killing all of them "would not assure the recovery of the cod population.""

No, probably not. And taking every polluting, smoky car of the roads in eastern Canada
would not "assure" the recovery of our atmosphere either.

So?

Posted by baD mR fRosTy on February 14, 2010 at 5:31 PM | Report this comment

LEt us not forget..sealers hunt seals on the BEACH ! not in the woods or fields, so the "flora" is quite safe. After a couple of tides come & go, there will be little to no sign of anyone being there. Also by crushing the skulls of the seals with a club, the sealers are not disturbing any other wild life on the island, with repeated gunfire...now isn't that considerate of them ?
I believe it is ~:)

Posted by More on February 14, 2010 at 12:09 PM | Report this comment

If the area is protected, nobody should be able to beat the seals to death. Protected, means protected!! LEAVE THE SEALS ALONE

Posted by MomaSita on January 6, 2010 at 2:52 PM | Report this comment

Canada sends troops to democratize other countries and to be present at public hearings in countries such as Afghanistan in order to ensure democracy . It has been obvious that the Canadian Parliament is in a bad need of revamping, maybe by having some foreign troops guiding each and every public hearing would be a start?

Posted by Maitri on December 12, 2009 at 8:39 AM | Report this comment

NL's Greatest Export asks rhetorically, "Seal hunters target pups?" Then suggests I'm biased and asks if PETA is now paying The Coast "to write this slander."

Sorry to rain on your disinformation parade pal, but you know damn well that seal pups are the target of the hunt. On its FAQ page about sealing, DFO says:

"Seals cannot be legally hunted until they have moulted their first coats and are living independently from their mothers. Seals are not usually hunted until they reach the "beater" stage of development at around 25 days old."

In answer to the question, "why do hunters target young animals?" DFO responds:

"Young harp seals between approximately 3-4 weeks and one year of age are called beaters - so named because they tend to slap the water when they swim. Beater seals provide the most valuable pelts and market conditions are stronger for this type of pelt."

Although DFO does not refer in this answer to grey seals specifically, there is ample evidence that young grey seals are the target of the organized slaughter too. On Feb. 11/09, for example, the Cape Breton Post quoted Robert Courtney, president of the North of Smokey Fishermen's Association about the hunt on Hay Island. Courtney complained that there was no buyer for the pelts because the Northeast Sealers Cooperative was renovating its plant in Newfoundland. He added therefore, that prospects for the hunt were not good. The Post went on to give Courtney's reason why:

"The grey seal pups will be off the rocks and into the water where they can't be hunted within two weeks, he said."

Further down in its story, the Post reports that last year humane society activists filmed "the harvest of grey seal pups" on Hay Island.

Finally, the Canadian branch of the International Humane Society puts it this way:

"...97 percent of the seals killed in the commercial seal hunt over the past three years have been younger than 3 months, and most were younger than 1 month old. At the time of slaughter, many of these pups had not yet eaten their first solid meal or taken their first swim. Sealers prefer to kill the baby seals because their skins are in "prime" condition and fetch the highest prices."