The federal government has slashed the number of seals that hunters in Atlantic Canada will be able to harvest this year, but environmentalists say the measure falls short of the mark.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans will allow 270,000 harp seals to be culled this year, a significant reduction from last year's quota of 335,000.
Federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn announced the new quota on Thursday.
The lower catch-rate is due to the fact more seals are expected to drown this year due to poor ice conditions in the southern part of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Rotten or weak ice conditions force the newborn pups into the water before they have learned to swim properly, causing a higher mortality rate.
"These decisions are guided by principles of conservation. I also want to ensure that the people who depend on this resource for their livelihood will benefit from it over the long-term," said Hearn in a press release.
"This year's decision takes into account the poor ice conditions we've seen in the Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence."
Fisheries Department officials maintain the East Coast seal herd, estimated at somewhere between 5.5 million and 5.8 million animals, is not threatened by the hunt.
However, amid concerns that the harp seal population is at risk, Hearn announced that the next survey of the population will be bumped up to next year, instead of 2009, as scheduled.
Environmentalists say that's not good enough.
"It is absolutely appalling that the minister is ignoring the evidence from his own scientists showing that the harp seal population simply cannot sustain hunting at this level,'' researcher Sheryl Fink, from the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said in a statement.
The organization has long pushed to end the hunt.
"This decision has no basis in science or conservation," Fink said.
The IFAW argues that, according to the government's own numbers, the harp seal population cannot sustain a catch limit that is higher than 165,000.
"With harp seals facing a growing threat from global warming and poor ice conditions, continuing the hunt at the unsustainable level announced today is nothing short of irresponsible,'' Fink said.
She blames poor ice conditions on global warming.
In total 70 per cent of the quota will be harvested off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador. The remaining 30 per cent will be harvested in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, largely in the northern regions.
The federal government has not yet announced when the harp seal season will open this year.
Last week, Canadian environmental and environmental protection groups united to call on the federal government to end the decades-old annual hunt.
The Humane Society International, Greenpeace and the Green Party of Canada gathered together in Ottawa on Thursday to urge the government to cancel the hunt to the ice conditions.
Sharon Labchuk of the Green Party of Canada called it the world's largest slaughter of marine mammals.
"Now the seals are facing the added threat of global warming," Labchuck said last week.
"It's time the Canadian government takes steps to protect the seals and puts a final end to the commercial hunt."
With files from The Canadian Press
