Saturday, March 25, 2006

Controversial East Coast seal hunt opens on unusually thin ice

Updated at 10:29 on March 25, 2006, EST.
A fishing boat makes its way through the ice on Friday in the Gulf. (CP/Jonathan Haywayd) A fishing boat makes its way through the ice on Friday in the Gulf. (CP/Jonathan Haywayd)
GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE (CP) - It's hot and bloody work for seal hunters on the first day of Canada's East Coast seal hunt as summer-like conditions on the Gulf of St. Lawrence sent temperatures soaring under clear blue skies.

Observers on the fishing boat, the Strait Signet, said about 20 seal hunt vessels were in the Cabot Strait off northern Cape Breton on Saturday, and hunters were clubbing seals floating on small pans of ice.

By mid-morning, the temperature was already 15 degrees. Hunt protesters are complaining that the ice is fast disappearing in the mild weather and there will be a high natural seal mortality.

Seal pups cannot survive in the water until they are several weeks old.

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