Seals: they’re a lot cuter than cod. And for that reason, humans have a lot more trouble with the idea of killing them, let alone eating them. Two big, doleful eyes, a sweet button nose, a long, cuddly torso flanked by two adorable flippers flopping every which way—these elements can do no less than make up a creature so endearing it looks like it’s straight out of a Disney movie.
Sure, seals are essentially the puppies of the sea, but that hasn’t stopped the Inuit from hunting them and eating their meat for thousands of years. So what’s all the fuss about?
The proposed grey seal culls in the southern gulf of the St. Lawrence and Sable Island raise the question, more urgently than ever: why don’t we eat the seals? The sad reality is that thousands of seals are killed in commercial hunts every year, and while their pelts are sold (at consistently diminishing prices) and their blubber is made into an oil, there is hardly any market for seal meat, either in Canada or abroad.
Of course, there’s an undeniable political stigma attached to the seal hunt in most of the world which translates into an aversion to eating the once-snuggly mammal when it’s sitting on your plate, but if we’re going to kill them, shouldn’t we do our best to be responsible from ice floes to plate?
This isn’t to say eating seal is always considered taboo. In fact, a number of Montreal restaurants, like Les Îles en ville, serve seal as a delicacy. Donald Painchaud, “proprio-serveu” of Les Îles en ville, says that in the Magdelen Islands, where he’s from, seal is the status quo. “Here we do a special recipe for roast seal with brandy and cranberry sauce. We also have seal filets, sausages and terrines,” he says. “It’s a different meat, but if you like different, wild meat, you’ll like seal.”
With a taste that is equal parts gamey and fishy, with a texture comparable with veal and duck, seal is a very dark meat which is surprisingly low in fat and rich in iron and Omega-3. In 2006 the world’s first seal cookbook was launched in Sweden, and popular seal recipes include seal tartare, seal stew, baked seal meat and of course, Newfoundland’s own seal flipper pie.
Traditional seal hunting has long been practiced by the Inuit, and seal meat is a dietary staple, the gamey meat keeping hunters warm and strong. In 2009, Michaëlle Jean controversially showed her support for the Canadian seal hunters in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, by gutting a dead seal and eating its heart.
In the DFO’s 2009 plan for the slaughter of 220,000 seals on Sable Island, the proposed method of disposal for seal carcasses involved incineration in mobile crematoriums, or transportation via tractor-trailer to a Nova Scotia landfill. If that’s the alternative, then maybe eating seal meat isn’t as abhorrent as we first thought.
One thing’s for sure: while seals definitely win the cuteness contest, cod has a better chance at taking the gold for most delicious. –Michaela Cavanagh
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This article appears in Nov 15-21, 2012.
I’ve eaten seal in NFLD. It tastes like greasy roast beef.
We could feed seal to the homeless? Or, we could cut the cod some slack and feed the homeless to the seals. Everybody wins.
http://static.themetapicture.com/media/fun…
Soylent Grey is SEALS!!!!
YES!!! Let’s eat EVERYTHING in the ocean… why not! Why not?
I have a better solution, a win-win solution you can read here:
http://janicesanghamitra.com/2012/11/inclusive/
There is no credible scientific evidence to support the Canadian Senate’s claim that culling 70,000 grey seals will help solve the issue of depleted fish stocks in the Atlantic (which has been caused by overfishing). Instead, I propose using the money to fund training and support of a new livelihood for Canadian fisherman: Organic Food Factories using Aquaponics technology.
And here is my petition on Change.Org: http://chn.ge/ZS3aot
I hope the seal cull means seal meat in the grocery store, or a local butcher takes on the task. It would be very wasteful otherwise.
The reason we don’t eat the seals is because they are too toxic to eat. If Ms. Michaela did her homework she would have known that. But then again she probably didn’t want to know that, she just wanted to write a cute article. And she accuses the seals of being cute.
I’ve had seal flipper in the past but I wouldn’t make a habit of eating seal meat – especially the organ meats and blubber. The liver contains very high concentrations of mercury and other heavy metals while the blubber carries a toxic load of organic pollutants.
The Government of Canada walks a fine line. It wants to promote a trade in seal products but has warned women living in the Canadian Arctic that eating certain parts of the seal while pregnant can lead to birth defects due to high levels of mercury.
I cut back on my consumption of tuna years ago for the same reason – high levels of mercury and a government health advisory.
Because of all the fisk we have been fishing, its good to hunt seal to keep the balance. They are eating fish too, and its a loooot of them. Seal taste like wild meat ,but you get the same feeling like eating fish! Its healthy and you can eat the beef,ribs,heart,chest and the “wings”. You can make oil of the fat and you can also use the skin that is left making halal gelantin. The liver is the only part we cant use, because humans have been contemineted the sea with heavy metals. Its important to hunt seal and its just Greenpeace making money because the seal is cute, and because some idiots have been doing bad hunting. I think cows are cute, but I eat them. And the way we are slaughtering them is a lot worse!
Ive seen the comments on the toxins in seals, can anybody direct me to the studies?
This really enrages me that we waste seals when they could have been left alone. Should we cull humans because they overfish because they can’t think of any other way to make an income? There are polar bears literally starving but they incinerate the food they so desperately need. How does that make any sense? Ignorance is bliss. Humans don’t have the right to choose how nature should be its nature leave it the F alone. Why are not more people upset about this or how we as humans destroy nature and call it global warming. Or whatever else we can blame to justify what we do. Nature should be protected and we humans should not just take without ever giving back. When will it ever stop. Let nature be nature there are cycles. You can’t kill and there not be consequences.