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Sealing Vessels Stuck In Ice, Rescue Vessels Stuck Too
I've spent a lot of time at sea and wish no mariner harm. But… the Canadian sealing fleet is stuck in heavy ice off Newfoundland! CTV reports the Canadian coast guard estimates that between 400 and 500 people are stranded in as many as 100 vessels. "It's a dangerous situation,'' Eldred Burden, 48-year-old skipper who is trapped aboard his 18-meter vessel, told the Canadian Press via telephone. "There's not one thing you can do ... We're getting dragged out pretty good. You're up all night and the boat is heaving and twisting.''
Supplies and fuel are running low for many of the ships -- most of them longliner fishing vessels waylaid off the coast of northeast Newfoundland and southern Labrador, while on their way home from last week's seal hunt. Even a Coast Guard ice breaker, the Sir Wilfred Grenfell, sent to help, was stuck in the ice Wednesday as the massive sheets closed in around it. It's since been freed, but another icebreaker, the Ann Harvey, is now stuck.
Some of the ships have been stuck in the ice for as long as eight days, and it appears that conditions wouldn't improve until at least next week. In total three icebreakers are working the rescue, with three helicopters delivering supplies, and another three Cormorant search and rescue helicopters on standby. As many as a dozen of the ships are extensively damaged and some could even begin to take on water as the ice pressure subsides and they begin to slip back into the water.
If only Neptune had waylaid them before the seal hunt. Altogether a bad season for sealers (and seals), since the southern slaughter grounds were decimated by ice melt earlier this spring, drowning the baby seals and forcing even the hard-hearted Canadians to call off that stage of the hunt.--Julia Whitty
I really don't feel sorry for them, somehow.
Hopefully they are not using the time while stuck to club more baby seals. I've been to the Magdelenes to see the seals. They're even more adorable than in photos and more helpless than you can imagine. When these poor babies are clubbed to death, an act I did NOT have the misfortune to see, the mothers can do nothing but swim nearby and keep themselves and watch.
See if you can guess how much sympathy I have for someone that can walk up to a helpless baby and club him/her to death with a bat. This is not necessary, not sustainable, and not humane. As it is, these seals are going to have a hard enough time surviving global warming without having their babies murdered.
Oh, and don't forget to keep boycotting Canadian seafood from this region until the seal hunt is stopped. This does have an effect as the people killing the seals are the same people fishing in the region.
Let me start off by saying that I am a strict vegan, as is my husband - we will also raise our daughter so - no meat, dairy, eggs, fish, leather, wool, etc. That being said, opposition to the Canadian seal hunt is one of the things that irks me the most.
The only reason why such great outrage exists towards the seal hunt lies in the "cuteness" of the animals in question. It disturbs me greatly that the vast majority of those making such a fuss over "those poor babies" still eat cows, pigs, sheep and chickens - not quite so cute, too bad for them.
Seal hunting is more strictly regulated than slaughterhouses are; hunters not "properly" clubbing the animals and killing them humanely are charged and can have their licenses suspended for the next season. Government officials are on-hand to ensure this. No such oversight exists in any other slaughter industry. The death is quick and isn't preceded by days/months/years of intense physical and emotional trauma as in the case of animals killed in slaughterhouses.
If I had to choose between eating seal meat and cow meat, I'd choose seal hands down. Similarly, if I had to choose between the life (and death) of a cow and a seal in our current world, I'd rather die a seal.
Cuteness shouldn't decide whether or not one gets to live.
Addendum to the post above:
Just to clarify, I am just as opposed to the seal hunt as anyone, more than most I'm sure. I just detest the notion that one animal's life is worth more than another simply because we think it looks more "adorable". I wish that people would realize the hypocrisy in holding such a point of view.
That being said, perhaps opposition to the seal hunt is where we need to start. Maybe those who are first introduced to compassion for animals through the "cute baby seals" of Northern Canada will eventually realize that a mother cow doesn't miss her baby any less.
You've got some very good points Asymptote. I do eat meat. I also travel the world to view wildlife. Here are some things I'd add to that.
1) Cuteness should not be a factor, true.
2) Intelligence should be a factor, which argues against eating pig. I've cut back a lot on pigs.
3) Sustainability should be a factor.
a) Seals are, as this year shows and future years are likely to show more strongly, going to have a very hard time adapting to climate change. Animals that rely on an ever dwindling cryosphere should at least be left to deal with it as best they can.
b) People should not kill most predators as they are usually slow to reproduce and take a long time to reach maturity. Tuna, seals, swordfish, etc. are all bad for this reason. Top level predators also have high levels of toxins that concentrate up the food chain. Inuit women have such high levels of PCBs and mercury in their breast milk that it would literally be classified as hazardous waste.
c) Beef and chicken are probably bad from a sustainability standpoint due to the huge environmental problems caused by raising them.
4) Humane treatment until death and including the method of killing should be a huge factor. Since you tell me that the seals are killed humanely, I will look into this and, if so, will remove one of my reasons for opposing the slaughter. Humane treatment is the biggest reason that I never eat veal.
5) People should not kill what they will not eat. These seals are not being eaten by humans. In the arctic, the Inuit do indeed eat seal. In the Maritimes, these animals are being slaughtered for the fur trade. We can make garments to stay warm from a variety of better sources than this. Recycled soda bottles come to mind. This also argues against bear hunting, shark finning (where only the fins are eaten), and sport killing of any species not eaten by humans. It also argues strongly for reducing and ultimately eliminating the bycatch from fishing.
6) People should get the bulk of their protein from the most efficient sources possible to reduce land use. Soy is better than most meat, but is actually worse for the environment, in terms of protein produced per acre of land, than raising grain and feeding it to tilapia, carp, or catfish in a pond.
Have not heard anything lately - hopefully the ships are still stuck and the men will feel helpless - much like the baby seals do when they are being clubbed and shot and skinned. I would not care if these men went down with their ships -
As a high-school student living in Newfoundland, I am rather annoyed at the ignorance many people continue to share about the seal hunt.
The comments made by Joanne R., "I would not care if these men went down with their ships", were extremely hurtful and abnormally hardhearted.
Everyone is entitled to the right to form opinions, seal hunt included, but PLEASE make these opinions [and often accusations] based on fact and knowledge.
I am appalled that everyone who has posted [not to mention the article's author] believe that baby seals are still killed. The ignorance that surrounds those statements is baffling, and seemingly the main argued point in banning the seal hunt.
THE TRUTH IS THAT WHITE COAT SEALS HAVE NOT BEEN HUNTED FOR DECADES.
They haven't, yet almost all of the above posts based their arguments on the 'cute' baby seals you claim are slaughtered.
Please, before you throw around horrible, misinforming comments like "these poor babies are clubbed" GET INFORMED.
STOP THE IGNORANCE.
I am not even going to try dispelling the comments made on how the seal hunt is not necessary to the economy [IT IS}].
PLEASE STOP REPEATING BIASED INFORMATION YOU HEAR FROM ONE-SIDED ORGANIZATIONS. GET FACTS!
continuation...
I have to wonder, since hunting seals is not solely a Canadian issue, why it is the biggest target of these groups. There is a major hunt in the American state of Alaska each year. This hunt is much larger than the Atlantic hunt, but nobody ever seems to notice it. Instead protest groups would rather ignore the Alaskan hunt and focus on Atlantic Canada
Asymptote you are absolutely right. The way the mother hogs are kept in a pen where they can't move is a crime, not to mention the chickens crowded together so they can't sit down and they peck each other as they lose their minds. The cows also suffer in the feed lots where they are crowded and step on their excrements and also go insane. What kind of creatures(humans) run these death camps?
I think it is a sick day anywhere in the world when someone who kill a helpless creature. They have every right to be here
Watch out for the USER named "Joanne R" up there, that user is a SHILL.
The user "Joanne R" writes (IN ALL CAPS TOO!) that they are so "appalled" that anyone here would "believe that baby seals are still killed". Then goes on to cite a ban on whitecoat seals. -This is a known false sealer argument. Very well known, and Joanne R has simply parroted it. So if you ever see anyone write it, be informed that is a well known piece of Seal Hunter supporter propaganda. Here is the real story...
Prior to 1972, Seal Hunters used to in fact KILL the baby whitcoat seals, in fact, that was their MAIN market, nearly all of them. Even as far back as the 1950's when television first arose, a tv crew got footage of what they had done and it caused outrage. But by the 1970's the Sealers (Seal Hunters) had nearly decimated the harp seal population from 40 million, down to 1.7 million. So the United States BANNED all Canada's seal products. Next, outrage caused Canada to ban their own Seal Clubbers from killing the ones with white coats. That was in 1972. (This is the "3 decades ago!" remark).
Now what happens, is that a baby seal molts its coat. At roughly 12 days old. So a seal is born white, and at about 12 days old, its fur changes to gray-ish. At this point the Seal hunters to this very day in the 21st century bash in their heads.
Now its important to understand, that a Seal's normal lifespan is about 30 to 40 years. A human is roughly 60 to 80 years, so a human lifespan would be about twice a seals. So that means a 12 day old seal would be about like a 24 day old human infant. Now seal hunters think, that when a baby seal with a white fur coat (illegal to kill) at 12 days old, molts into its gray coat (now KILLED!) on the 13th day, that somehow magically out of a 30 to 40 year lifespan, its magically NOT a baby anymore. Of course this is false, but its a favorite trick by Sealers to use to fool people.
Essentially what they are trying to convince everyone is, that a 12 day old one is a baby, but a 13 day old one is now suddenly a full grown adult. In actuality, 98% of all killed seals by these seal hunters are aged from 12 days to 12 weeks old. ALL are babies. Put THAT in caps.
Sealers Saying that its so "appalling" to even *dream* of saying they still kill the baby ones, because they don't kill the white ones because Defenders actually made it Illegal for them to do so, and that they dont kill babies because they get them at 13 days instead of 12 and now they're magically grown-up, is what's appalling.
Since Seals live to about 30 to 40 years, half a human lifespan, this would be akin to wild Seal Hunter reasoning something like... ok, you gave birth to a human baby, it's crawling, oh! it learned to walk! It's not a baby anymore! Its an adult! Lets give it a drivers license, let it drink alcohol, and its old enough to send to war.
Obviously a baby doesn't magically become an adult overnight in 1 day, like Seal Killers would like you to believe. But they use that claim over & over & over again.
It's already been debunked, and even their own Dept of Fisheries has said for them to stop using that, but you'll still see them even go against their own DFO and parrot things they pick up, not knowing that they've already been shown to be bogus.
Ok, just informing you, to be alert for this one, you'll see they try it often. No one believes them anymore, but they do still try it, and you can use it to know that if you ever see anyone post that "we dont kill babies because we dont kill the white coat ones anymore" line, you will now know that user is bogus.
take care.
In fact, their own Department of Fisheries TAC logs even state that nearly all of the ones they killed are under 3 months old. Seal Hunters even have a nickname for young seals under 1 year old. Sealers call them: "beaters".
Due to the fact that traditionally they beat them with a steel-bladed weapon called a Hakapik. That's the "club" they use, it actually has a sharpened metal blade mounted on the tip of it. And along with guns, that is what they are using to crush their skulls.
Oh, and with regard to this "cute" thing that Seal Hunters will also attempt, this is also shown inappicable.
You will recall, that for decades, these sealers DID kill the whitecoats. Until the seals nearly were decimated, down from 40 million to only 1.7 million left. Then people around the world, including Canadians too, BANNED sealers from killing those in 1972.
Now *those* are supposedly the "cute" ones. So according to law, it is unlawful to kill those, and has been. What are being killed now are the "big fat ugly gray ones" as a Newfoundland Seal Hunter called them. So if all you, and people out there in the world thought about, was the "cute" ones, then why are people STILL fighting to help the seals? Obviously, the Sealers do not understand, that if people only cared about the "cute" ones, that everybody would have gone away, gone home, and been satisfied, but that is not the case at all.
Despite the "cute" ones not being killed now, people around the world have not gone anywhere, people are still fighting these Seal Killers to help the seals no matter if they are big fat and gray or not. (Note: in actual fact poachers still DO kill the white ones, illegally, and sealers still kill seals that are 1/2 moulted, 1/2 white fur still on them while they are still changing to gray. Plenty of Videos document this. Even in the 21st century).
So this entire "cute" thing that Sealers try to muddy the issue with is exactly the opposite. A multitude of people around the world still help the seals, even when they are the "ugly" gray coated ones, with all kinds of freckle spots. This year Germany will BAN all Canadian seal products. Italy has suspended all canadian seal products. Holland has already said they do not want anything to do with it. Even Mexico has banned Canadian Seal products. So has Belgium. BANNED. Even Luxembourg, Croatia, and more have Banned Canada's seal pelts & skins. The UK is set to ban it. In fact, to this day, this year, the entire European Union is poised to pose an EU-wide moratorium on all Canadian seal products killed by this tiny special-interest group of lobbyist sealers. Even despite the fact they know it deals with the gray ones. No one has gone anywhere. And even at this very moment of you reading this, people are still fighting for the seals, ALL of them.
So this cute argument they try is just more stink bomb from Seal Hunters.
One thing that is true, however, is that humans have the capacity to FEEL. In fact, that simple fact, is what gives us humanity. Anyone who looks at a baby, and FEELS for it, is human! This is a *good* trait! Not a bad one. It's what makes us compassionate. It's not the person who looks at a little puppy and thinks its cute, or the mother who melts when she looks at her baby, or the father that looks at his beautiful son and it almost brings a huge man's heart to cry with love, that has a problem. It's the person who DOESN'T FEEL that has the problem. It's the person who can stare at an animal and crush its skull and Not feel a thing that you have to worry about. It's the person who looks at a little kitten playing and whose heart remains as cold as a stone, that is more suspect that something is not quite right with them. In fact, studies have been done regarding criminals & serial killers, and has found that nearly ALL of them had perpetrated violence on animals before they committed their acts on humans. And they became desensitized, such that they did not feel a thing for any of them.
So to those of you who look at one and DO think it's cute. GOOD FOR YOU! You're human! And this is a good thing. You have the quality that is the shining light and one of the highest attainments of humankind. The ability to feel, altruism, and compassion. You are what saves the human race from being just another also-ran.
And as far as using images, it is correct that photos of white coated pups are used on posters and all sorts of things, because the little 9 yr old girl who walks through the poster store and wants to put something she likes up on her bedroom wall, does NOT want a picture of the real story of Seal killers crushing the skulls of gray ones, along with pieces of strewn carcass & blood-soaked ice, and skinless bulged discolored eyes up on her wall. And we don't blame her! That is so scarring and traumatizing that if a Father put a photo of the Real story up on his kid's wall, people would be saying my god, man, what are you doing!.
And if photos of "cute" whitecoated seal pups is what it takes to raise awareness of this issue, then SO BE IT. GOOD. Make more, even. Because most all of the organizations out there to this day, have pictures of BOTH gray ugly big fat whatever Sealers want to denigrate them as this time, as well as the others. One more time, the sites that Defend the seals DO have photos of the gray ones. However ugly and name-calling that a Seal hunter wants to get, Defenders' web sites and materials contain a full spectrum and variety of seal pictures of all kinds and types. gray, white, and otherwise. And to remove the white ones would also be mis-representational. That would be denying an entire centuries long history of these Sealers killing the white ones until defenders helped ban them from doing that, otherwise they'd still be doing that too.
In addition, any of these Sealers who are blurting out about how it's so shameful and accusing OTHERS of only looking at their cuteness, we bet they do the same thing to women. What do you think the chances are, that these Fishermen buddies all get together with their hakapiks & beer & guns yukking it up covered with blood and smelling of expired fish dragging seal blubber carcasses around sit around the table going "You know, that woman across the street down by the docks there, the one that is a bit long in the tooth, but what a great *personality* on that one, eh?" We bet these same Sealer afficionados that post the "cute" argument onto chats are probably some of the ones that do that very thing to women. It is ironic, because Sealing, for a long time was held to be "man's work" by these same Seal Hunters. And Canadian Sealers DENIED the rights & labor benefits to women. Even up until the year 1984, male Sealers in Newfoundland denied unemployment insurance to women fishermen & sealers in that region, saying only men should be qualified. 1 brave woman had to break the law to raise awareness to it and get the discrimination by Seal Hunters against women in Canada finally changed.
So to see these same ones trying to post about how disgraceful it is that people around the world feel warmth about a baby, is rich.
In any case the whole "you ONLY care about the cute ones" argument is already shown to be false, people around the world are still fighting to this very day for ALL of the seals, including the gray ones. And on one is stopping, whether Seal Hunters want to hear it or not.
:-)
Hey Asymptote,
I can understand that you have the right ot make the decision to becoem a vegan, but how do you have the right to deny your daughter the pleasure of a good STEAK..? I hope she goes to an American college and hooks up with a farmers son, and then she will find out how much she LOVES beef..!!!
BIll