Newfoundland sealers anxiously await EU ban vote on May 5

[Annces]

(The EU votes May 5 for a ban on seal products, and it is expected to pass by a wide margin.)



By Ashley Fitzpatrick,
March 28, 2009

The Western Star

ROCKY HARBOUR, N.L. - A sealer since the age of 16, Dave Patey is now 49 and unsure of what he will be doing this time next year.

He doesn't know whether he will be preparing to hunt seals, or looking elsewhere for the seasonal income he usually earns through the sale of seal pelts.

``For them (the protesters) it's not much,'' said Patey of the money he makes through the seal hunt. ``But two or three thousand dollars for me, to start off the year in the fishery - it's big.''

Patey, along with 30 to 40 other sealers and processors, gathered Friday for the annual meeting of the Canadian Sealers Association.

Those connected to that industry, like Patey, are waiting to hear, once and for all, whether the European Parliament will ban Canadian seal products. The vote by the full European Parliament was to be held on April 1, but it has been delayed to late April.

If the EU votes to ban Canadian pelts, it could mean the beginning of the end for the hunt.

``There would probably not be much of a sealing industry this year,'' said executive director Frank Pinhorn of the results of a full European ban, as sealers would find it difficult selling pelts. Processors would be uncertain of how much product they could sell, he said, and traders would be denied the traditional sales pathways, through Europe, to markets in Russia and other countries.

``There's a wait-and-see approach.''

The delay in the vote places it after this year's main seal harvest on the Newfoundland `Front,' where approximately 70 per cent of seals taken in Canada are killed, according to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Countries including the United States, the Netherlands, and Belgium already have instituted their own national bans on Canadian seal products, but a final vote for a full ban from the Parliament would be devastating to the industry, Pinhorn said.

Newfoundland and Labrador fisheries minister Tom Hedderson said that, with the extension of the European parliamentary vote, what happens this year on the Front will be particularly important to the promotion of Canadian seal products as ``humane'' products.

``We've got to be more than extra careful,'' said Hedderson in a speech at the sealers' meeting, who urged sealers to ``keep the faith'' in the industry while holding high standards in their work.

``A lot of responsibility falls on your collective shoulders to move this industry forward.''

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/sealers+anxiously+await+vote/1441674/story.html

[flvegan]

1. I am positively giddy with anticipation.

The European ambassadors have already agreed to the plan to ban seal products. The vote should really just be a formality. The sweet smell of it being official will be nice.