Seal Hunt Set to Begin

Sealers and activists will sail for tiny Hay Island Thursday for the controversial annual hunt.

It has become yearly ritual of clubbing and recrimination. Two sealing vessels and a zodiac carrying anti-sealing activists are expected to set out for Hay Island Thursday to begin what hunters call the annual harvest. Activists describe it as an unsustainable and inhumane slaughter and will be documenting every minute of the bloody spectacle, in which 1,900 animals will be clubbed to death. Worldwide campaigns to stop the hunt have hit the Canadian sealing industry hard, but last year China inked a deal pledging to buy seal meat, oil, and pelts from Atlantic Canada, giving the industry a much-needed boost. This year sealers will shoot 100 animals with rifles to determine if it is a more humane killing method.