Low pelt prices, high fuel costs frustrate sealers

[Omaha Steve]

Source: CBC

Sagging prices may keep some Newfoundland and Labrador sealers from heading to the ice when the largest part of Canada's seal hunt opens later this month.

The hunt on the Front — the traditional name given to the area off Newfoundland's northeast coast — is scheduled to open this weekend.

But some sealers say they may be better off staying home, as buyers are offering $35 per pelt, about half of last year's price, while fuel prices are soaring.


Sealers say the market for their pelts, used to make sealskin coats and other products, is much weaker this year.
(CBC)


"I don't guess I or very many others will be all that pleased with the price this year," said Herring Neck fisherman Jim King.


Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2008/04/07/seal-prices.html

[DainBramaged]

1. Good, let them discover cotton and wool and rayon and nylon

Fucking seal killers.:grr:

[mike_c]

2. barbarians....

That includes whomever supplies the market that powers the annual slaughter.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Who could WANT to make a living this way? Jesus. n/t

[Wilms]

3. .

[kestrel91316]

4. Oh, really.........well here's something for them to ease the pain......

:nopity:

[Bozita]

5. That's one of the very, very few situations where I side against the workers.

[dysfunctional press]

6. what if they held a seal hunt, and nobody came...?

let's find out.

[hatrack]

8. Gosh, how tragic . . .

NOT.

[DebbieCDC]

9. Couldn't happen to a nicer group of sub-humans

Rot in hell seal murderers.

[Lorien]

10. Assholes who kill for fur profits or wear fur products

get ZERO sympathy from me!

:grr:

[flvegan]

11. It would be wrong for me to point and laugh.

*points*

Ha ha!

[Shoelace]

12. Nigel Barker says they could make millions with eco tourism

such a great idea, why are they too stupid to NOT do this?

snip from article at the link:


After experiencing first hand the beauty of the harp seal nursery, world-renowned photographer Nigel Barker joined The Humane Society of the United States in calling on the Canadian government to end the commercial slaughter of baby seals in favor of the more humane — and lucrative — eco-tourism industry.

Since Canada banned commercial whale hunting in the 1970's, the whale-watching industry has thrived and is now worth more than the commercial seal hunt.

"Years ago, the Canadian government successfully turned its commercial whale hunt into a multimillion-dollar whale-watching industry, and there is absolutely no reason the government cannot do the same with seals," said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The HSUS. "By continuing this appalling and inhumane hunt, the government is turning what should be an economic asset — the world's largest migration of these highly charismatic marine mammals — into a liability. The new economies of the major nations of the world will be built around sustainable and humane practices, not the reckless exploitation of wildlife and natural resources."

Barker said, "Witnessing hundreds of thousands of harp seals with their beautiful white coat pups in this awe-inspiring frozen landscape is enough to take even the most seasoned photojournalist's breath away. Of course, the thought of the impending slaughter with the use of clubs, sharp spikes and guns in only a few weeks' time shatters what should be a celebration of life and promise and instead fills you with dread and remorse for the inhumane way we treat our fellow animals."

http://www.hsus.org/press_and_publications/press_releases/nigel_barker_and_hsus_urge_seal_protection_030408.html

[wpelb]

13. Defense of the hunt?

I believe defenders of the seal hunt (i.e., the seal hunters themselves, as well as fishermen) blame the seals for the depletion of fish stocks in neighboring waters. Critics blame the depletion of fish stocks on overfishing, however. The sight of defenseless baby animals being brutally slaughtered for their fur makes it difficult for a rational debate on the effects of the seals on fish stocks to ever take place.

:(

[Shoelace]

15. sadly, ironically - the rotting seal pup bodies might be killing Cod

in the St. Lawrence Seaway from studies I've recently read. That is for another post but it appears that much of the depletion of the Cod fish has been from hypoxic events (lack of oxygen) in the oceans in question. Part of this is due to global climate change but consider this; last year with the massive ice melt, there was nearly 100% mortality rate of Harp seal mortality because of the loss of sea ice. Add to that the rotting bodies of nearly a half million rotting seal corpses that take up oxygen to decompose (that is just one year's figure's estimates but does include thousands of wounded seal pups who die a long, painful death but manage to slip away from the hakipiks of the Sealers hits (I've recently seen a video that showed the sealer hitting a seal at least 10 times, yet the seal pup slithers off into icy water to die later on).

In the study at the link, it's well known by now that these rotting corpses can cause these hypoxic events which will kill Cod as well as many other species of fish. Study up and know that we humans are upsetting the oceans on a grand scale and we must stop before we are left eating the only source of food we can get............the Dandelions out of our lawns!!!

http://www.fisherycrisis.com/seals/hypoxia.htm

[LeftyMom]

16. Not just the hypoxia.

The seals don't eat much cod, it's only a small percentage of their diets. What they do eat are the predatory fish that eat the juvenile cod. Without the seals to eat them, there are more predatory fish, fewer juvenile cod become adult cod, and there's nothing for the sealers (whose main business is fishing, the seal slaughter is a side business) to catch.

And global warming might very well take out the cod and the seals. Going into this mess with fractions of healthy populations certainly isn't going to help.

Worse yet, the gov't knows this, and they know that they pay more into the seal slaughter than the sealers earn from it. But because it might lose a few votes from a few inbreds in backwater fishing villages, they're fighting like hell to keep the whole charade alive. Like CEOs who refuse to look beyond the next quarter's earnings report, most politicians are completely incapable of seeing beyond their next reelection campaign.

The shortsightedness and greed of human beings- the ones who bludgeon the seal pups, the ones who buy and process the pelts, the ones who dispatch the ships that break up the ice, the ones who set the annual quota, the designers who use the pelts and last but not least the selfish, ignorant, dangerously entitled amoral scumfucks who choose to walk around in the skin of another living being- is going to be the death of individuals, of populations, of species, and quite possibly of life on earth as we've come to know it.

[Nihil]

14. How sad.

Or not, depending on your point of view ...
:rofl: