CORNER BROOK, N.L. — The latest report calling for more to be done to understand Canada’s seal population and rekindle the sealing industry is being welcomed by sealing advocates, but what they really want to see is government action.
“These are reports that government has asked for themselves, so it's clear that the problem is not at the political level,” he said. “The problem is within the management side of this, the science side, the bureaucratic controls.” In his presentation to the Senate committee, he explained how female seals are now 20 kilograms lighter in the month of February and 1.8 centimetres shorter in body length. He noted that, on average, seals are now two years older before they have their first pups and three times as likely to abort that pregnancy than when the population was 5.4 million.
“We've got commodities that fit well into a number of commodity categories, but we just can't move the product the barriers to trade are so extraordinary,” he said, referring to import bans around the world. “The thing that rings through in this report is there's an expression of urgency,” he said. “There's a real high level of urgency here to make sure something is done for the sake of the environment, our fisheries and the seals themselves, because things are not looking terribly good out there in the water.