In this edition of the Seals News Podcast, the International Fund for Animal Welfare's Seals Communications Officer Katie McConnell speaks about a suggested ban of the Hakapik and the effect of European efforts to ban the import of seal products on the Canadian sealing industry.

Click Here to Listen to the Podcast Now!

Animal lovers and Second Lifers are being encouraged to attend a live virtual event to help end commercial seal hunting – with guest appearances by a US musician and a UK politician.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) concert on Saturday 10 May (3pm SLT & 11pm BST) will feature singer/songwriter Juel Resistance and Labour Member of Parliament for Bristol East, Kerry McCarthy. Second Life's residents will have the opportunity to hear about IFAW’s campaign to help stop the cruel Canadian seal hunt. Residents will be able to view and hear video recorded by IFAW monitors during the 2008 seal hunt which began in March, interact with IFAW avatar Daisy Meadowbrook and take action in support of calls for a Europe-wide ban on seal products.

Kerry McCarthy MP, who will speak at the event, said: “I strongly support IFAW’s work to put an end to this brutal hunt. The annual killing of more than a quarter of a million seals, mostly for their fur, is simply unacceptable.

“An EU-wide ban on the trade in seal products is a vital step to help end this hunt and make sure that Europe plays no further part in this cruelty. I’m very happy to lend my voice in support of that effort.”

Second Life Residents can attend the event on Saturday May 10 at 3PM SLT (PST) by following the link below:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/IFAW%20Island/177/76/53

Those who are not already Residents of Second Life can sign up at no cost via the www.secondlife.com site.

In what may prove to be some of the most violent footage of the 2008 Canadian commercial seal hunt to date, the International Fund for Animal Welfare has posted this short video of two seal pups clearly in agony as they are attempted to be killed by rifle fire and in the last case a subsequent clubbing.  Please consider donating today to help IFAW end this cruel hunt once and for all.

Three Dutch members of parliament and dozens of school children participated in IFAW's campaign for a European ban on Seal products on 1 April 2008 in The Hague, The Netherlands.  The parliamentary members from the liberal, social, and social democratic parties demonstrated their support by climbing up a ladder to place puzzle pieces in the form of European  countries on a large billboard map, symbolizing the European countries that currently  do not have a ban on seal products.  The children cheered and waved European flags in the air as each member took on the brave task of climbing the ladder to the top.

On Monday the IFAW team continued to document Canada's commercial seal hunt off the east coast of Cape Breton. We saw four boats; two medium size boats and two small skiffs, along with the Coast Guard vessel. The boats were moving through the ice pans searching for the young pups.  Although this is my seventh year documenting Canada's commercial seal hunt, one can never be completely prepared for the cruelty that we witness. We documented sealers both shooting seals from their boats and clubbing them on the ice.

I saw animals being shot from boats and injured; these young seals were not killed quickly or humanely like the Canadian government claims they are. One animal was crawling around on the ice bleeding for over a minute before the boat arrived and a sealer jumped down onto the ice pan to kill it with a club.  It never ceases to amaze me that sealers see a seal crawling around on the ice suffering, yet they don't act quickly and shoot the animal again to put it out of it's misery.

IFAW documents the seal hunt for a few days a year and we can only be filming one boat at time. Yet every year we see animals being shot or clubbed and left to suffer. We see animals hooked and skinned alive, as we did yesterday. The most striking image from yesterday's footage involved a seal that was injured and then hooked in the face and dragged back to the boat. We were moving between boats and came across a sealer on the ice with what appeared to be a dead seal. He started writing in the snow with a bloody finger; the message was "F@ck Off".

As we were circling to get a better shot of his message to us, the seal that was on the ice behind him, tried to sit up! This was clearly not swimming reflex, this animal was still conscious. The sealer did not respond by taking action to quickly kill the seal as required by the Marine Mammal Regulations, instead he hooked it in the face and then proceeded to drag the animal across the ice and onto the boat, still alive. What we document out here is unacceptable and the world needs to see what only a few people have the ability to view in person. IFAW is here to document the hunt so that the world can see that this hunt is inherently cruel and is not monitored or enforced like the government claims. 

Although the hunt in the Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence is coming to a close, IFAW will stay on another day or so to try to document as long as we can. The weather was bad today so we could not fly, but we will try again on Wednesday. We are here so that the world can see what really happens during the world's largest marine mammal hunt.

This image of a sealer dragging a bleeding seal across the ice while another sealer takes aim at a different pup was taken on day two of the Canadian commercial seal hunt. 

Please consider donating to the International Fund for Animal Welfare's hunt monitoring teams to purchase equipment, fuel and fund research efforts that allow us to make the legal case that this hunt must end. 

WARNING: This Video contains graphic images of seal hunting.

In this video, the International Fund for Animal Welfare's Research Scientist Sheryl Fink talks about this opening day footage of the 2008 Canadian commercial seal hunt.

“We will use every avenue we can within the law to keep people as far away from the hunt as we can.” Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn, before the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans.  October, 2006.

And so they did. Today was the opening day of the commercial harp seal hunt here in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and even though we had long ago filled out our observation licence applications, gone through the personal interviews, and paid our licence fees, the seal hunt was opened with not a single observer licence issued.

We decided to head out anyway.

IFAW 2008 Seal Hunt PSA - "Animal Welfare" from IFAW on Vimeo.

Longtime International Fund for Animal Welfare Supporter D'arcy Callahan speaks about his 21 years of involvement with IFAW.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare's J.C. Bouvier filed this report from P.E.I. Canada...

In my role for the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) I'm not usually able to get out into the field for actual campaign activities with animals. However on Monday I and my coworker Ed Butler received an offer to go out onto the ice and visit with the maturing harp seal pups on the ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

After discovering the joys of getting into the emblematic orange "Mustang" suits...Ed and I acclimated quickly to our first helicopter ride...our pilot Martin was both very professional and genuinely concerned that everyone on board was comfortable and enjoying the experience...once we spotted beater seal pups...the ride became a surreal landing into the scene I had only witnessed in video and still photographs...and I don't know that I was truly prepared for the beauty, but perhaps more importantly the reality that these creatures could be violently attacked for profit within the coming hours...

Once on the ice, Ed, the other passengers and I worked to both be respectful of the seals space...while trying to get as close as possible...we looked a bit like seals ourselves as we slid quietly toward a pair of beaters who were basking in the sun.  They were ultimately very patient and kind while we snapped a few photos and stared in a sort of stunned silence...contemplating our lying on the frozen ocean, working to protect these gentle and timid creatures.

More to come...

Dit verslag is gemaakt door’ onze communicatie medewerker van IFAW Canada, KatieMcConnell...

In voorbereiding van de HuntWatch heeft ons team nog een groot aantal taken te volbrengen voor de aankomst in Charlottetown.

De meeste taken zijn vrij standaard… verzamelen van beeldmateriaal, inpakken van video camera's en bewerkingsapparatuur, informatie regelen voor DFO (Canadese ministerie LNV) waarnemers vergunning, enz.

Dit jaar was er echter nog een minder conventionele taak worden volbracht….. een onderwater vliegtuigdrop cursus! Nu zult u mij vragen wat zo’n onderwater vliegtuigdrop heeft te maken met zeehonden, maar het antwoord is zeer eenvoudig.

In het kader van de ramp van vorig jaar in het zuiden van de Golf van St. Lawrence, moest ons team bijna uitsluitend over open water vliegen, om nog maar te zwijgen van het feit dat we niet in staat zijn geweest om onze helikopter te landen op een stuk solide ijs sinds 2005!

Het team realiseerde zich dat het in ons belang is om een beetje ervaring op te doen over hoe te overleven in het onwaarschijnlijke geval van een landing op open water. Natuurlijk, op papier klinkt het logisch, maar wat houd deze training eigenlijk in? Zoiets als ; instappen in een open stuk van de romp, jezelf vastgespen op een stoel, je ogen sluiten en wachten tot de hele zaak in het zwembad word gedropd en onderwater ondersteboven kiept? Nee, ik maak geen grapjes…

Ons observatieteam reisde af naar Survival Systems, Inc in Groton, om te leren hoe we zelf veilig uit een ondergedompelde helikopter konden komen. Het personeel was er zeer bekwaam en heeft ons stap-voor-stap de vaardigheden geleerd, die we nodig hadden om te ontsnappen via ramen en deuren en weer boven water te komen. Het was vrij eenvoudig eigenlijk.

We moesten blijven zitten, vastgebonden aan onze stoelen, toen het water in de romp werd gepompt en de simulator ondersteboven werd gedraaid. De gedachte hierachter was om ons op 1 plek te houden met een constant bewustzijn van waar het raam of de deur was. Zolang we in dezelfde positie bleven, kunnen wij niet ronddrijven in de cabine of de weg naar buiten kwijt raken. Na enkele uren oefenen in het zwembad (gelukkig was het 28 graden) en na ongeveer 5 of 6 keer te zijn ontsnapt, voelden we ons allemaal vrij zeker over onze vaardigheden.

We hebben nu veel meer respect voor de voorzorgsmaatregelen die we nemen en beschikken nu over onschatbare vaardigheden, hoe we ons leven moeten redden, mochten we ooit neerstorten op het water. Natuurlijk, alsof het lot er mee speelt, nu we vers opgeleid zijn in onderwater rampen, lijkt er ijs in de Golf te liggen ;-)

Katie McConnell filed this report from the IFAW hanger in PEI, Canada.

Before the IFAW team headed out to see this year’s harp seal herd in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, we had a safety briefing to help orient ourselves with the helicopters that would be taking us out to see the seals.

Our pilot explained some of the very important safety precautions all of us must take when we enter and exit the machine. The flight team learned how to approach the helicopter, by staying low and always walking in front of the helicopter so the pilot can see us at all times.

Under no circumstances are we to approach the helicopter from behind. Our team leader, Cheryl Jacobson reminded us, “it’s like a horse…never walk up behind one or you’ll get kicked.” Good point – especially since a kick from a tail rotor of a helicopter would most certainly be a fatal one.

We also discussed where the safety equipment – (satellite phones, life rafts, etc.) was located and how we can access it. For most of our briefing, we watched the pilot point out important parts of the helicopter and listened to what we needed to do.

However, for one part we actually had to practice getting in and out of the helicopter as it was hovering a few feet above land. The pilot wasn’t sure if the ice in the gulf was going to be thick enough to support the weight of the machine so we had to approach the helicopter while it was hovering, open the door carefully, distribute our weight evenly and slowly as we climbed in, scoot across the back seat and exit out the other side.

Once we made it out of our hanger and into the gulf, there was plenty of ice and we were able to land safely on it. Luckily we got to see some happy beater seals too. This was my first year seeing baby seals on the ice, and watching them play just made the thought of the commercial seal hunt even more of a disgrace.

This report was filed by IFAW Seal Communications Officer Katie McConnell...

In preparation for HuntWatch, our team has to complete a myriad of tasks before arriving in Charlottetown, P.E.I.

Most tasks are fairly standard…gather key footage, pack up video cameras and editing equipment, organize information for DFO observer permits, etc., etc. This year however, we added a less conventional task that needed to be completed…an underwater aircraft ditching course! Now you may ask what an underwater aircraft ditching course has to do with seals, but the answer is very simple.

In light of last year’s global warming disaster in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence, our team had to fly almost exclusively over open water. Not to mention we haven’t been able to land our helicopter on a solid piece of ice since 2005! The team realized it would be in our best interest to have a bit of training under our belts on how to survive in the “unlikely event of a water landing.” Sure, makes total sense on paper, but what does this training actually entail? How about getting into an open-ended piece of fuselage, strapping yourself to a chair, closing your eyes and waiting for the entire thing to be dunked into a swimming pool and tipped upside down underwater? I’m not kidding.

Our observation team headed to Survival Systems, Inc. in Groton, CT to learn how to get ourselves safely out of a submerged helicopter. The staff there was extremely knowledgeable and took us step-by-step through the skills we needed to escape through windows and doors in order to get to the surface of the water. The system was pretty easy to grasp. We were advised to stay seated and strapped to our chairs as the water rushed in through the floor and the simulator tipped upside down.

The thinking here was to keep us in one spot with a constant orientation to the window or door next to us. As long as we stayed in the same position, we couldn’t float around the cabin or lose our way out. After several hours of practice in the pool (luckily it was 80 degrees) and about 5 or 6 escapes, we all felt pretty confident in our aircraft ditching abilities. We now have a lot more respect for the safety precautions we take before flying out over the Gulf as well as invaluable skills in how to save our own lives should we ever be faced with a ditching situation. Of course, as luck would have it, now that we are freshly trained in underwater egress, there seems to be ice in the gulf ;-)

The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) released the total allowable catch (or TAC) of seals today. 

The number of seal pups Fisheries officials decided it was reasonable to kill is 275,000 harp seal pups, known as beaters...seals whose coats have just started to progress past the white coat stage...and the majority of which will be between 3 weeks and 3 months of age...The International Fund for Animal Welfare issued a press release calling the decision 'appalling'.  You can read the complete release here.

We will keep you updated via this, the IFAW seal hunt blog at blog.stopthesealhunt.com about our plans to let the world see the cruelty of this unnecessary commercial hunt. 

Please spread the word about this cause and tell friends to subscribe to this feed.  Thank you.

Submitted by J.C. Bouvier - IFAW Online Campaigns Staff

The International Fund for Animal Welfare's Seal campaign team members Sheryl Fink (Senior Researcher) & Katie McConnell (Communications Officer) discuss the recent release of the European Food and Safety Authority's report on seal hunting practice around the world and offer some analysis and observations.

Click here to listen to the podcast!

Many of us wonder if the holidays have become too commercialized.

This year, consider giving each of your friends and family a gift close to your heart.

For as little as $25 you can buy a gift that will help end the cruelty of Canada's seal!

Most commercial gifts are laid aside after a short time or are forgotten. But a Gift for Baby Seals supports IFAW's efforts to protect baby harp seals by providing equipment needed to monitor sealers. It's a gift that goes towards ending Canada's commercial seal hunt for good by revealing the truth about what happens on the ice.

So before you head to the mall, buy a unique gift for a great cause!

With four additional animal campaigns to choose from, you can save a different animal for everyone on your list. Rescue an orphaned bear cub, provide veterinary care for a desperate cat or dog, and much more!

Your gift also includes a gift card package containing a full-color pamphlet explaining how your gift helps an animal, and a distinctive gift card. Every gift up to $75 comes with a stylish pen and pencil set bearing the IFAW logo, and gifts over $75 are shipped with an attractive IFAW canvas tote bag. And your gifts are tax-deductible in the U.S.

What gift could be better than knowing your present is helping end Canada's commercial baby seal hunt?

Visit the IFAW Gift for Animals site today - and share the joy of lives made better!

The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) is proposing amendments be made to the Marine Mammal Regulations (MMR) in an effort to further hinder public observation of the commercial seal hunt. Although no text has been proposed at this time, changes to these amendments would give the Fisheries Minister more power to deny observer permits with little or no justification. Essentially, these changes will help keep Canada’s cruel commercial seal hunt out of the public eye.

In addition, it has been cited that DFO intends to have these changes in place for the 2008 hunt. It seems as though DFO is trying to ‘fast-track’ the process and bypass adequate consultation with the public. For instance, the last time the MMR were amended, the consultation process took 5 years!

IFAW has reviewed the proposed amendments and submitted comments back to DFO stating that these changes are an unnecessary and overreaching infringement of our right to observe the hunt.

With two national bans on seal products in place in Europe and a possible EU-wide ban looming in the future; it seems Canada is trying very hard to shield its cruel and useless slaughter from policy-makers of the world.

Click here to tell Canada that their seal hunting practices need proper observation by organizations like IFAW.

IFAW's Online Community Coordinator speaks with Wildlife and Habitat Seals Communications Officer Katie McConnell about this weeks seals news...

Download ifaw_seals_news_9_18_2007.mp3

We're off to a fast start...Seal News Podcast - Episode 2 is now available.  More to come.

Download ifaw_seals_news_8_27_07.mp3

Hi all -

I'm happy to post our first 'Seal News Podcast'...stay tuned for regular weekly episodes...and please send any feedback to me directly.  jc bouvier [at] ifaw [dot] org.  Thanks and enjoy!

Download ifaw_seals_news_8_22_07.mp3

International outrage over the annual seal hunt continues to gain momentum. 

At the end of July, the US House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution calling on the Canadian Government to "suspend the hunt in the waters off the East Coast of Canada now and forever." The resolution was introduced by Democrat Tom Lantos, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Republican Christopher Shays. See "US asks Canada to stop baby seal hunt," from the Herald Sun.

Countries around the world are speaking out against Canada's harp seal hunt.  Belgium has banned the importation and marketing of all seal products. Austria and France have declared their intention to pass a similar ban. Like the US, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Mexico and Croatia are all on record opposed to the hunt. Canada is feeling the heat and is starting to react. It has recently announced its intention of  turning to the WTO and using that body to fight Belgium's ban.

If you haven't already done so, please speak out for seals by adding your profile to our seal community and learn how you can get more involved.

Yesterday we received news that The Netherlands had decreed to end the sale and trade of all seal products!  This is terrific news for seals and a great victory for IFAW and its supporters...

The ban officially removes the Dutch market from the international commercial seal trade, sending a strong message to the Canadian government that European markets for seal products are continuing to shrink. This decision was applauded by IFAW (The International Fund for Animal Welfare – www.ifaw.org), which has actively campaigned to achieve a national ban in The Netherlands for several years.

Read the full press release here.

Well today is May 15, which is a day that kind of sticks out in our minds here, since under Canada's Marine Mammal Regulations, it is technically the "last day" of the harp seal hunt.  Under the Regulations, most areas are closed to sealing from May 16 to November 14.  Of course, the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans has the authority to extend the closing date as he wishes - as is done in most years - even if the Allowable Catch has already been reached or exceeded. 

As of yesterday (May 14), 210,955 harp seals have been reported killed - still below this years allowable catch of 270,000. The hunt goes on today, and sadly, it is likely it will continue tomorrow. We'll keep you all updated...

The South Florida paper, the Sun-Sentinel posted this last report about a bearded Arctic seal, hundreds of miles from where it should have been found...which swam into the Tarpon River in Florida two days ago...was then chased for hours by local officals and Sea World vetinary team members...and then after subsequent capture and attemps at rehydration...died while these same teams were trying to rehabilitate the lost creature.

Speculation about why the seal was so far from home turned from the reasoning of potential strange currents, or the chase of a mating partner to the broader question of Global Climate Change.

Could it be that the changes to the worlds temperature and rising seas are throwing these marine mammals off course?  The autopsy is under way...so hopefully some answers will be forthcoming shortly...but quite a question to ask...

More great news for seals this week!

Yesterday, Austria, and today the government of France has declared their intention to ban the import of seal products.

With this commitment, France joins Belgium, Italy, Netherlands, Germany, Mexico,and Croatia in speaking out against Canada's cruel, unsustainable, and unnecessary slaughter of harp seal pups.

Let's keep this momentum going!

Chris Gale, an active supporter of IFAW's efforts in the U.K. has created a petition on the petitions.pm.gov.uk site and has almost 1000 signers.  Chris details his petition saying:

"Over the past five years, more than 1.25 million seals have been hunted in Canada’s annual commercial hunt – making it the largest marine mammal hunt in the world.

The global community has denounced Canada’s seal hunt and responded with seal trade bans. National bans currently exist in the USA, Mexico, Croatia,Italy and Belgium.

The UK government should follow suit and introduce a ban on seal products to protect these wonderful animals from a cruel and unnecessary trade."

British subjects can sign the petition here at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/SAVESEALS/

Name: Josh L
Location: Boise, ID
United States of America
Message: Please stop the Canadian Seal Massacre - this inhumane hunt has gone on for far too long!

Name: Valeria S
Location: Waipahu, HI
United States of America
Message: We are part of huge net in where the balance is essential. We are destroying this balance and soon or late we are going to pay for that. We need to support IFAW's Seal Campaign to stop this massacre!

Name: Jonathan C
Location: Miami, FL
United States of America
Message: Animals were in this world first. They are our elders, they deserve respect.

Name: Birgit B
Location: Athens, Greece
Message: This is the most cruel and totally useless brutal slaughter of any kind of animal. I thought Canadian people are civilized?! How come that 98% of the population, who are supposedly against this, have not been able to stop a bunch of barbarians??

Name: Anais L
Location: Mexico City, Mexico
Message: Support IFAW's Seal Campaign and end with this cruelty! The continuous invasion of natural areas, and consumption ends in devastation, we should worry more about the balance between nature and humane society because this planet is our only home.

Name: Donna Y
Location: Montreal, Canada
Message: We are, as a society, becoming more and more desensitized to cruel and brutal behaviors. It's time that we all begin to think of the voiceless victims of our insatiable appetite for nonessential adornment.

If you haven't signed up for a profile alreday, sign up now and you might be a featured supporter!

Today, we held a virtual public briefing at IFAW’s virtual information center in Second Life to give an update on our Stop the Seal Hunt campaign.  This is the second event we have held in Second Life in as many months. A number of people were in attendance including a representative of Lynda Waltho, MP (Labour member for Stourbridge,), who wrote to the British Department of Trade and Industry calling to a ban on the seal hunt and stop the importation of Canadian seal products into the United Kingdom.

Here are a few photos:

We are actively seeking new ways to take our message to people around the world, and engaging the residents of Second Life is yet another way to educate people about animal welfare issues.

Reports are out that sealing vessels are stranded in heavy ice and strong winds on Newfoundland’s northeast coast and in southern Labrador. The Canadian coastguard is using icebreakers to try to free boats stuck between Cape Bauld and Cape Bonavista. There are also boats stranded in the Strait of Belle Isle.

IFAW is concerned for the safety of the sealers and we hope that they will all return home safely. With unpredictable weather and ice conditions sealing is a dangerous occupation and the unpredictable conditions are one of the reasons the hunt is so cruel—getting a clean kill in these conditions is not easy.

With indirect subsidies provided by the Canadian Government in the form of Coastguard icebreakers and promotional delegations trying to prop up an unsustainable industry—it is clearly time for the hunt to end.

The Canadian Government should instead invest in alternative, safe and sustainable employment opportunities for those who subsidise their incomes by sealing.

Posted by Katie McConnell

This past week, the IFAW team returned safely from Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island, Canada. We have gathered together our footage from the hunt and our experts are now working diligently to review the hours of film to expose examples of cruelty that continues in this hunt today.

With the footage we have already reviewed we have seen the cruelty associated with shooting seals - scenes of seals being shot at from far distances and seals wounded by a sealer’s shot and left struggling on the ice pan until the boat can get close enough to finish the job with a blow to the head.  We witnessed times between the wounding from the rifle and the blow from the club as long as 8 minutes. During this time the seal is left bleeding and suffering on the ice.  Not what I would call a humane death.

Proponents of the seal hunt would like the public to believe that shooting seals with rifles is a humane way of killing them. However, as our evidence from this year will show - a majority of seals that are shot at end up suffering needlessly.  They are left bleeding on ice pans or slipping back into the water only to drown.   These seals – the struck and lost - are not recorded in a sealing vessel’s catch numbers.

Unfortunately, this year’s seal hunt season is far from over. Even though the IFAW team has left Canada’s East Coast and our documentation of hunting activities has ended, it is important to know that the killing will still continue. As of April 16^th, the total number of harp seals killed was 177,299.  This means that the 2007 Canadian commercial seal hunt will continue – away from the eyes of the public - for at least a few more weeks. Last year, the hunt close date was extended by a month, and the TAC was overrun by 19,000 animals resulting in the killing of over 354,000 harp seals. I wonder if this will happen again this year.

If you haven’t yet taken action – join our online community, send a letter to the Canadian Prime Minster Stephen Harper and tell your friends to visit our site to learn more about our campaign to make this hunt history.