Hay Island Seals Threatened Again

October 29, 2009

Earlier this week, the Nova Scotia government announced its intentions to revise the Wilderness Areas Protection Act to allow the Minister of Environment to officially authorize the commercial slaughter of baby seals on Hay Island, which is a part of the protected Scaterie Island Wilderness Area.

Rebecca Aldworth, director of HSI Canada, noted, "This move to legitimize the clubbing of baby seals in a provincial park is a betrayal of all Nova Scotians. The Canadian fishing industry is already feeling the effects of a boycott of Canadian seafood in the United States and Europe that will continue until the commercial seal slaughter is ended for good. I can guarantee the heartbreaking images of baby grey seals beaten to death with wooden bats on Hay Island will convince many more businesses and individuals to avoid buying seafood from Nova Scotia."

In the past two years, the Nova Scotia government has authorized sealers to club thousands of baby grey seals to death on Hay Island for their fur. Animal protection groups argue that Hay Island, as a part of the Scaterie Island Wilderness Area, is subject to the Nova Scotia Wilderness Areas Protection Act, which states: "Within the wilderness area, no person shall… remove, destroy or damage any natural object, flora or fauna, whether living or dead." The Nova Scotia government is attempting to revise its own legislation to legitimize this commercial slaughter in a protected area.

Representatives from Humane Society International/Canada and the Atlantic Canadian Anti-Sealing Coalition have documented the cruel clubbing of baby seals for their fur on Hay Island. Observers filmed and photographed as hunters herded seal pups, mothers and newborn seals into groups. Sealers clubbed moulted pups inches away from newborns and their mothers. 

In 2008, using wooden bats and crude cutting implements, including box cutters, commercial sealers clubbed and skinned more than 1,200 seal pups in just days, leaving almost no pups alive on Hay Island.

Grey seals have been subjected to extreme overhunting in the past two centuries, and by 1949 were thought to have been wiped out (extirpated) in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. While the population has slowly begun to recover, fishing-industry lobby groups have repeatedly pressured for a cull of grey seals despite any evidence to suggest such a move is necessary.

Related Links

Horror on Hay Island

DFO once again to allow gruesome grey seal massacre on protected island

The eyes of the world are on Canada as 200 baby grey seals are slaughtered

Expedition to seal nursery spotlights pups slated for slaughter