World Wildlife Fund: Support the Canadian Seafood Boycott and Save Harp Seals
- by: Alice Bruckenstein
- recipient: World Wildlife Fund
Every year Canadian fishermen kill thousands of helpless harp seal pups a couple of weeks after they're born, but too young to swim away. This annual hunt, or, to describe it more accurately, slaughter, has continued year after year despite worldwide condemnation. The 27 member countries of the European Union imposed a ban on commercial seal products in 2010, and most recently, the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan and Belarus, major importers, have banned the importation of harp seal pelts across their borders as well.
The lack of markets for seal products has not stopped the hunt. Killing harp seals is an off-season activity for fishermen who make most of their income selling fish and only a fraction of their income selling sealskins. In fact, the seal industry has been subsidized by the Canadian government for years, and there are currently hundreds of thousands of sealskins stockpiled, purchased with taxpayer dollars.
Now, the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans has set a quota of 400,000 seal pups as the total allowable catch for 2012. The DFO has blatantly gone against the recommendations of its own Marine Mammal scientific research, which has found harp seals to be in decline due to vanishing sea ice. CANADA IS IN DANGER OF DECIMATING ITS OWN HARP SEAL population. Harp seal pups remain on ice floes for the first few weeks of life until they learn to swim. If the ice melts too soon, the pups drown. In recent years, harp seal pups have been dying in record numbers because of the lack of sea ice. Yet 400,000 may be killed this year!
Groups supporting an end to the seal hunt have asked businesses, as well as retail consumers, to stop buying seafood from Canadian fishermen until they stop killing seals. So far, over 5,500 restaurants and grocery stores, and 650,000 individuals, have joined the Canadian Seafood Boycott.
The World Wildlife Fund, which partners with major grocery chains like Kroger and SuperValu to provide sustainable standards and practices, can make a significant impact on saving the declining harp seal population by advising these companies to join the Canadian Seafood Boycott. PLEASE ASK WWF TO SUPPORT THE CANADIAN SEAFOOD BOYCOTT AND HELP SAVE CANADA’S HARP SEALS.
Please also sign this
Links for more info:
http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/seal_hunt/
http://www.harpseals.org/index.php
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_mYsl3MZM4
Dear Carter Roberts, President and CEO of the World Wildlife Fund,
The diminishing ice cover off eastern Canada is causing harp seal pups to die in record numbers. In 2010 almost none survived. Despite these alarming facts, Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans has set a quota of 400,000 harp seal pups as the total allowable catch for 2012. The DFO has blatantly gone against the recommendations of its own Marine Mammal scientific research, which has found harp seals to be in considerable decline. Canada is in danger of decimating its own harp seal population.
Canadian fishermen make only a fraction of their income by killing seals, and the “industry” has been subsidized by the government for years. Markets have practically disappeared and hundreds of thousands of pelts are already stockpiled with no potential buyers.
Your partnership with major grocery chains like Kroger and SuperValu to provide sustainable standards and practices puts you in a unique position to make a significant impact on saving the falling harp seal population.
We the undersigned ask you to advise these companies to join the Canadian Seafood Boycott. In light of the effects of climate change and the Canadian government's lack of concern, ending the seal hunt must be a priority. When it does end, the boycott will no longer be in effect. Supporting the Canadian Seafood Boycott would be an important addition to WWF’s actions in carrying out its mission of mobilizing people in the service of protecting nature.
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