Survey of Seals

Countries that hunt them
Seal Species across the world and numbers killed

Canada

350,000 animals killed yearly. Seals may be killed after reaching age of 12 days for harp seals.

Good overview of Canada’s Seal Hunt Program and attitudes.     Canada Seal Management, government document

From 1983 to 1995 catches of harp seals averaged only about 54,700, far below the annual total allowable catch (TAC) of 186,000 harp seals. In December 1995 however, Canada increased the TAC for harp seals to 250,000 and for the second year in a row, provided subsidies to encourage sealing, ostensibly to benefit depleted cod stocks.

Canadian taxpayers have propped up the sealing industry with $20 million in subsidies since 1995.     Canada Sealers Subsidized

Seal Pelts

Canadian seal pelts- processing and buyers Canada's biggest market for seal pelts is Norway. Carino Limited (short for Canada-Rieber-Norway) is one of Newfoundland's largest seal pelt producers. Carino is marketing its seal pelts mainly through its parent company, GC Rieber Skinn, Bergen, Norway.

Rieber Skinn Company

Atlantic Marine Products Catalina, NL, Canada - pelt processing.

Canada sold pelts to 11 countries in 2004, with Norway, Germany, Greenland, and China purchasing the largest quantities. Other buying countries were Finland, Denmark, France, Hong Kong, Greece, South Korea, and Russia.

Seal meat

Asia remains the principal market for seal meat exports

Seal meat article - Province still searching for seal meat markets March 2006.

The province's fisheries minister says he does not see a short term solution to the lack of markets for seal meat. Sealers struggle to find markets for meat. That means most of the meat from seals killed in this year's hunt will be left on the ice.

Fisheries Minister Tom Rideout said the province and Ottawa have spent a lot of money over the years trying to develop markets for seal meat – without a lot of success. "We certainly would prefer to have the carcasses utilized," said Rideout. "But despite everybody's best effort, up until now we just haven't been successful in developing something that would even pay it's way."

original article

Canadian seal skin exports (rounded)

Greenland     $4,000,000
Norway     7,000,000
Finland     2,000,000
Denmark     11,000
Hong Kong     380,000
Turkey     62,000
Russia     30,000

Fashion Industry purchasers of seal pelts

Birger Christensen, Denmark
Prada, Italy, New York
Dolce & Gabbana, Italy
Versace, Italy
Gucci , New York Gucci has promised to stop using seal pelts as of April, 2008 per PETA

Harp Seals Organization working to permanently end the annual Canadian Harp Seal slaughter

Atlantic Canadian Anti-Sealing Coalition

Canadian Sealers Association of Newfoundland and Labrador

Ban trade in seal products

Belgium (since 2007)
Netherlands (Holland) (since 2007)
Germany (since 2006)
United States (Marine Mammal Protection Act, bans all imports, 1972)

Greenland
80,000 seals are killed in Greenland annually

Namibia
In 2000, the Namibian government approved a quota of 67,000 Cape fur seals, including 60,000 pups and 7,000 bulls

Norway
Seal catching by sea-going sealing boats on the Arctic ice shelf. Seal hunting on the coast and islands of mainland Norway. The hunt is carried out by hunters shooting seals from land and using small boats to retrieve the catch.

In 2005, approximately 15,000 seals (including 10,000 harp and 5,000 hooded seals) were killed.

In 2005, Norway began offering seal hunting as a tourism product.

Russia
The Russian seal hunt has not been well monitored since the break-up of the Soviet Union; however, it is known that the annual seal harvest quota in 1998 was 35,000 animals.

In January 2000, a bill to ban seal hunting was passed by Russian parliament by 273 votes to 1, but was vetoed by President Vladimir Putin.

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Seal species
population size, geographic location, number killed and by what country

* Hooded Seal

population estimate
    250,000 in Jan Mayen (island off Norway)
    400,000 in northwest Atlantic (near Quebec)

annual kill
    Canada - 10,000 adults (no juveniles)
    Norway – 500 adults, 1300 juveniles.
    Russia - 2400

In Norway, the hunt is subsidized, because it is not economically viable.

* Bearded Seal

Artic ocean
300,000 (population estimate)
Russia and Alaska subsistence hunting

* Grey Seal

population
Both sides of the north Atlantic Ocean
150,000 west
130,000 east

Grey seals on both sides of the Atlantic are killed through fisheries conflicts. Fishing interests claim that seal predation is the reason behind reduced fish stocks. There is no scientific evidence to support this argument.

The grey seal is a protected species under the European Community's Habitats Directive

* Caspian Seal

Found in Caspian Sea, a landlocked sea by Russia and Iran, severely polluted causing disease.

population 100,000
annual kill
25,000 pups by Russian and nearby countries

* Ribbon Seal

north Pacific Ocean
population 240,000
annual kill - 100 seals a year by Native Alaskans.

* Harp Seal

Arctic and far north Atlantic Ocean

population
northwest Atlantic - 5 million
east Greenland - 300,000
Barents Sea - 1 million

annual kill     Canada - 465,000 (includes estimates of unrecorded deaths). Largest slaughter of marine mammals in the world
Norway 15,000 seals
Russia 35,000, all whitecoats
Greenland natives 80,000

* Ringed Seal
Arctic ocean
total population 4 million (crude estimate)
Northern Japan, Baltic Sea, Western Russia

Subspecies of Ringed Seal

Arctic and Okhotsk Ringed Seals
Native subsistence hunting
Alaska 3000
Canada 50,000

Commerial hunt
Russia 7,000

Baltic Ringed Seal
Hunting banned

Ladoga Ringed Seal
Lake Ladoga
Hunting banned

Saimaa Ringed Seal
Lake Saimaa
Hunting banned

* Spotted Seal

north Pacific Ocean
population 300,000 (no accurate estimates)
Not hunted

* Baikal Seal

Russia's isolated Lake Baikal
population 80,000
annual kill 3,500 (mostly pups)

* Harbour Seal

most widely-distributed, temperate and subarctic coastal areas both sides of the north Atlantic and north Pacific Oceans
population 400,000
    eastern Atlantic 90,000
    western Atlantic 60,000
    eastern Pacific 280,000

No commercial hunting
Some subsistence hunting

Monk, Elephant and Antarctic Seals

* Leopard Seal

Antarctic pack ice population 300,000 Protected

* Weddell Seal

Antarctic population 800,000 protected

* Krilleater Seal (called Crabeater)

most numerous seal species
population 15 million
Not hunted (Antarctic Treaty and the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals)

* Northern Elephant Seal

California and Mexico
population 100,000
Protected

* Southern Elephant Seal

Antartic
population 600,000
protected

* Mediterranean Monk Seal

brink of extinction
populaton 350
Mediterrean sea
protected

* Caribbean Monk Seal

Extinct

* Hawaiian Monk Seal

Endangered
population 1300
protected

* Ross Seal

Antarctic
population 200,000
protected

Sea Lions

* Steller Sea Lion

North Pacific Ocean from California to Japan
population 85,000
protected

* Australian Sea Lion

population 10,000
protected

* South American Sea Lion

population 260,000
no commercial hunting

* New Zealand Sea Lion

population 10,000 (last estimate)
protected

* California sea lion

200,000
protected

* Galapagos sea lion

30,000 (last estimate)
killed illegally

* Japanese sea lion

(extinct)

Fur Seals

* South American Fur Seal

300,000
no commercial hunting

* New Zealand fur seal

New Zealand and Australia
80,000
protected

* Galapagos Fur Seal

30,000 (last estimate)
protected

* Antarctic Fur Seal

antarctic
2 million (may have increased)
protected

* Juan Fernández Fur Seal

Chile coast
12,000
protected

* South African Fur seal

1.5 million
protected

* Australian Fur Seals

islands
40,000
protected

* Guadalupe Fur Seal

coast of Baja California
7,000
protected

* Subantarctic Fur Seal

temperate islands in the South Atlantic and Indian
Oceans
300,000
protected

* Northern Fur Seal

north Pacific Ocean
1,300,000
protected
subsistence hunting

Walrus

Atlantic 22,000
Pacific 200,000
Subsistence hunting

Seal Species

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