FREDERICTON - The federal government is considering changes to rules governing the East Coast seal hunt in hopes of lowering the emotional temperature out on the ice.
The idea is to keep sealers and observers further apart.
Phil Jenkins, spokesman for the federal Fisheries Department, said Thursday the department so far has received over 2,000 responses to its request for public comment on a proposal to extend the exclusion zone around seal hunters from 10 to 20 metres.
"It's all about safety for both the sealers and the observers,'' Jenkins said in an interview.
"The idea is to bring down the emotional temperature out on the ice and allow sealers to go about their business without disruption.''
The department launched an accelerated public consultation program on its website last week, giving people only a few days to make their feelings known.
The process ends on Friday and it then will be up to Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn to make a decision.
Jenkins said it is uncertain whether new regulations would be in place in time for this year's hunt, expected to begin in late March.
Rebecca Aldworth of the Humane Society of the United States, an animal protection group that has observed and condemned the seal hunt for years, said she believes Hearn already has decided to extend the exclusion zone this year.
Aldworth said a wider zone would make observing the hunt much more difficult, not only for animal protection groups but also for politicians and journalists attempting to scrutinize the annual slaughter.
"It can be a challenge, even at 10 metres, to be able to document what sealers are doing. At 20 metres it will be very difficult and at times impossible,'' Aldworth said.
"I think this is a very clear move on the part of the federal government to stop the images of the hunt that are closing markets for seal products around the world.''
The British government said recently it will press its neighbours in the European Union for a total ban on the import of seal products.
As well, the European Commission is assessing whether the hunt is humane and may recommend a ban, depending on its findings.
"There is huge public and political opposition to Canada's seal hunt in Britain and throughout Europe,'' Britain's Trade Minister Ian McCartney said in announcing the government decision to seek a wider ban on seal skins and products.
The Canadian government maintains the hunt, an important source of income for many coastal communities in Eastern Canada, is both humane and sustainable.
Jenkins said the request for a change to the exclusion zone was made by the sealing industry, which believes its activities are being disrupted by the growing number of hunt observers.
Most observation of the hunt takes place during the early part of the annual harvest in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, off Prince Edward Island and the Iles de la Madeleine, Que.
The largest portion of the hunt takes place off Newfoundland and Labrador, where greater offshore distances makes observation almost impossible.
There were several tense confrontations during last year's Gulf hunt between observers and sealers.
At one point, sealers came close enough to a boatload of observers, including independent journalists, to fling seal guts at them.
Journalists cannot travel with sealers to get their side of the story because of the federal regulation prohibiting them from coming within 10 metres of a sealer.
"It's not about safety,'' Aldworth said. "It's about shutting down the public's right to know what happens at the hunt.''
Aldworth and several other observers from last year's hunt are facing charges of breaking the 10-metre rule and coming too close to sealers.
Court dates have yet to be set in connection with the charges.
Aldworth said she does not know if she will get an observer's permit this year, but she said she will try.
