Access To Information records from the Department of Fisheries documents the ongoing collapse of the Atlantic seal hunt.

As first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter, the harp seal harvest last year was halved from 2016 despite subsidies paid to processors to promote seal meat recipes. A total 30,435 harp seals were hunted last year, a fraction of the 217,850 taken annually prior to a European Union ban on Canadian seal exports.

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The catch in 2016 was 66,800 harp seals, a fraction of the annual federal quota of 400,00 animals.

Legislators have blamed the 2009 E.U. ban on exports of Atlantic pelts, oil and other Atlantic seal products for the death of the industry. The value of the Atlantic harvest peaked at $34.3 million in 2006.

No seal exports were reported four years ago for the first time since Confederation. The dwindling trade follows repeated federal attempts to boost seal sales.

Access To Information records show the fisheries department in 2018 paid furriers to fly sales agents to China, Japan and Italy to promote seal pelts. The Fur Institute of Canada was paid $157,586 to “form a seal marketing strategy” and invite food critics to a Seal Fest event, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.

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Carino Processing Ltd. of St. John’s earlier received a $52,625 federal grant to produce a documentary and work with a chef on “recipe development” for seal meat. Parliament in 2017 also passed a bill celebrating the seal hunt in a bid to boost exports. Bill S-208 An Act Respecting National Seal Products Day marked the observance every May 20, coinciding with the European Union’s Maritime Day.

“Foreign governments and well-funded activist groups from away and at home in Canada have dealt a significant blow to this industry over the years and created a terrible image of the Canadian seal harvest,” Liberal MP Yvonne Jones (Labrador), parliamentary secretary for northern affairs, said in Commons debate on the bill.

“We have an obligation to make things right.” “We are not a society of people that judge others based on their culture,” said Jones. “We do not judge them based on what they eat or what their cultural practices are, nor should they judge us.”

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The Commons fisheries committee in a 2017 report Newfoundland & Labrador’s Northern Cod Fishery said Canada should promote a larger seal hunt, according to Blacklock’s Reporter. MPs recommended the fisheries department “make every effort to control the seal harvest populations through a sustainable and responsible harvest.”

“We have to come up with a viable way to encourage seal products, whether it be the pelts, the meat or whatever, to be available to other countries as a food source so as we can export it,” said Liberal MP Ken McDonald (Avalon, Nfld. & Labrador), former chair of the fisheries committee.